Justice Never Dies
by Bloodstained Comma
Summary: During a long deserved rest following the end of the Kira case, L awakens to find a notebook has been chucked at his head by a rather familiar Shinigami... one who threatens to kill him if he doesn't write a name. AU and rated T for language.
1. Prologue: This is Mu?

_I came up with this sort of idea a while ago and I just really started working on it._

_And that was when we all realized that I just can't freaking stop writing Death Note fics._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note characters and ideas. However, my perception of Mu belongs to meh, so blarg._

_This is just a prolouge._

_Just a bit of **IMPORTANT** **INFO** regarding this:_

_**AU** because L isn't dead. Light died in the college days because L was the one who caught him. I had to do this for my idea to work properly. If L died, he couldn't have had a Death Note chucked at him. That's not what the prologue is about, though. L isn't important until the next chapter._

_Now. Here be your prologue._

* * *

"So," Light said in agitation, "_this_ is Mu?"

"_Yep. None other._"

Light shut his eyes at the sound of that same old irritating cackle next to him. The cackle had never bothered Light while he was alive, but it was somehow much more irritating in death. This was partially due to his anger at his old Shinigami. Ryuk always had a knack for leaving out the finer details when he spoke of… well, pretty much everything. Mu was basically nothingness, sure, but it was still _something_. It certainly wasn't a black pit of endless darkness. However, there was no green grass, nor were there trees. There was a stray apple to be seen on the ground occasionally, but they were dry and tasted of sand. Aside from the apples, there was dirt, and a lot of it. Dirt and rocks were in a great abundance. Gambling seemed quite common as well. The most common thing of all, however, was Shinigami. Mu was their world.

"And you failed to mention _this_?"

"_Yeah_," Ryuk said. "_Your reaction wouldn't have been as funny if I had._"

Light gave an irritated grunt and started to walk off, but Ryuk followed him. Light stopped and looked at the gothic jester hovering next to him.

"You don't have to follow me anymore."

"_I know,_" Ryuk said with a cackle, "_but things aren't quite as boring when there's new Shinigami._"

"What're you talking about?"

"_You're going to have to go talk to the King soon, you know._"

"Why?"

"_Because you'll die if you don't get your own Death Note soon._"

"What're you saying?"

"_Did dying make you loose half of your IQ? You're not in the Shinigami World for no reason._"

"I'm not getting this, Ryuk."

Ryuk cackled again. Light thought of punching him, but thought better of it. "_You're one of us now._"

Light appeared to be horrorstruck. Ryuk appeared to be highly amused. This was _exactly_ why he had refrained from telling Yagami Light that humans who owned Death Notes while they were alive would become Shinigami when they died. Since Shinigami _could_ die, there had to be fresh meat occasionally. Also, since not many Shinigami ever died, not many humans ever owned Death Notes. After the Kira incident, Amane Misa would also become a Shinigami eventually. Ryuk wondered how long it would take Light to get bored enough to attempt to get a second Death Note to drop in the human world. Indeed, Light seemed like he could become the type of Shinigami who would do something like that.

"Does that mean I can continue to work as Kira?"

"_I don't know_," Ryuk said. "_Wouldn't that confuse L?_"

"Probably," Light said, laughing. "That could be fun. He'd start his Kira hunt again and realize that he's dealing with a Shinigami."

"_Hey,_" Ryuk said, "_don't get too excited. There could be a rule against killing like that._"

"Yeah," Light said. "What punishments do we get for breaking rules?"

"_It depends on what you do. I know one. If you kill without using a Death Note, you get first degree agony and then death._"

"What's that?"

"_It's where you die. Or in your case, it's where you die again._"

"Not death!" Light said in annoyance as Ryuk cackled again. "The first degree agony."

"_I don't know,_" he said. "_If I did know, __**I'd**__ be dead._"

Light rolled his eyes. Ryuk was just as unhelpful as he'd always been. What was the point in asking him _anything_ when all he'd get was either an indirect answer or a smart ass comment in return? Of course, it was _always_ get a signature guffaw to go along with whatever it was. Unfortunately, he still had a few more questions.

"I will get the eyes, right?" Light said.

"_Yeah. All Shinigami do._"

"How do I know how much life _I_ have left?"

"_You don't. Shinigami can tell when they're close to death._"

"How?"

"_We… just can?_"

Light again rolled his eyes at Ryuk's unhelpfulness. "Do Shinigami get new names?"

"_Previously human Shinigami can pick new names. Like you could take on just the name Light, or even go by Kira here._"

Light leaned back against a large rock and looked around at the barren world. Grass was nonexistent. The lack of greenery was severely depressing. However, he noticed something a little odd. Amongst a group of Shinigami, one was eating an apple. This wasn't a dried apple, but a perfectly normal one, like the ones from the human world. That was entirely strange, as it didn't seem that anything could grow in a place like this. Mu, it was called.

"Why's he have an apple?" Light said, nodding at the group.

"_Oh,_" Ryuk said. "_I told a few Shinigami that the human world had better apples, and the word spread pretty quick. You can bribe the King with them now, too. There are a couple considering getting extra Death Notes already just to drop them in the human world and see what happens._

"Really?" Light said, intrigued. "That's allowed?"

"_It's not against the rules, I guess._"

"Then if I can't be Kira as a Shinigami, I could have another human do my work for me?"

"_Yep._"

"That's pretty interesting. One other question."

"_Yeah?_"

"Where exactly _is_ the Shinigami King?"

"_Oh, yeah. Technically, I'm still your Shinigami until you talk to him. I forgot about that. I should probably show you where he is, eh?_"

"That would probably be a good idea," Light said. "I've already died one time. That was more than enough for me. And I didn't land on my feet when I got here, either."

Ryuk laughed. "_They never do. Oh, and you know what?_"

"What?"

"_You get wings after you've gotten your new Note and the eyes._"

"I sort of assumed that…" Light said. "It seems the rest of the Shinigami have them."

"_One of the penalties for breaking some rules is getting them taken away for a certain amount of time._"

"That's not so bad, right?"

"_Getting them removed is supposed to hurt like hell._"

"Oh," Light said. "Then I guess it is bad."

"_Yeah. Come on,_" Ryuk added, hovering past him. "_King's this way. You can ask him about the killing-criminals-thing, too, and how many apples it costs to get two Death Notes._"

Knowing there was no other option but to become a Shinigami at that point, Light followed Ryuk off to wherever he was being taken. There was no point in protesting it. He didn't particularly want to be a Shinigami, but the only other option was dying. He definitely didn't want to do that again.


	2. Chapter 1: Random Room Raiding

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, I'm just a fan, so don't sue me, because that would just be mean._

* * *

Sleep. It had been an unfamiliar thing over the past year, but the young detective could finally get some rest. That Shinigami – Ryuk was his name, wasn't it? – had killed Yagami Light and ended it all. Amane Misa had to be let go because she no longer had a Death Note or a memory. That was of course fine, because Kira, the worst murderer the world had ever come to know, was dead and gone. That was the most comforting thought in L's mind. Granted, much of the world had regarded him as a god and the crime rates were creeping steadily back up, but Kira couldn't murder anymore. Even though that Shinigami had started it all by dropping that damn notebook on the ground, he had also ended it by killing Kira, by killing Yagami Light, the boy who had a ridiculous thought in his head that told him he was justice. He had learned differently within his last moments.

A few hours of peaceful sleep were all that L could have before something hit him. He sat straight up and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. It definitely hadn't been a thought to hit him. Those hit him quite often, and they had never been that painful in the past. He looked around for the source of bother, only to see a black notebook lying next to him. This was strange. Without thinking at all about the Kira case or any aspects of it, he picked up the notebook. He looked at the cover. He blinked a few times, and then looked around the room. He looked back down at the book.

"Oh, shit…" he thought aloud as he read the two words written so plainly on the front cover. "Death Note. Should've thought about that before… dammit… I'm going to have to hide this… if a Shinigami shows up I'll be fine… I should just be able to forfeit it later… have to make sure no one finds it…."

Without any notice from L, a Shinigami called Kira watched through the window as L hid the black notebook in his dresser. He would have to watch L for a while to see what he did about the notebook. As L turned around, Kira ducked out of view, making sure his wings also couldn't be seen. As a new Shinigami, he was still getting used to those, as well as the idea that people couldn't see them. He had debated with himself on who to drop the notebook for. None of the people he had known in life were very worthy of it. His sister, Sayu, would have been too afraid. His father would have died before killing. Matsuda was too much of an idiot to work for Kira. Aizawa and Mogi were just as crazy about justice as his father was. Misa would have done anything for him, but he had certain other plans for her.

L, however, was quite a bit like Yagami Light had once been, in many different ways. Besides, even if L didn't write a name in the Death Note, he could give L the option of working with him or being killed. L was more likely to choose life that anyone else that Light had thought about. Aside from that, Kira had liked the idea of throwing something at his head. It was L's fault he had died and was no longer even _allowed_ to carry on his work, after all.

This place that L was staying at was a little strange. Kira had made himself comfortable there since no one could see him or hear him. There were too many children. True, it was an orphanage – The Wammy's House, it was called – but that didn't mean there weren't too many of them. From what Kira had gathered, L had grown up there and basically co-owned the place with Watari and a man named Roger. It was actually an orphanage for genius orphans that were being trained to take over for L when the time came. At the top were Near, Mello, and Matt. However, these weren't their real names, which was to protect their identities in the event that they were chosen to take over as L. Kira could easily see their real names, so there wasn't much to worry about there. Near was Nate River. Mello was Mihael Keehl. Matt was Mail Jeevas. Mello and Matt were best friends who had a similar interest in making fun of Near. They all looked up to L as something of an older brother, or even a father figure. He was definitely their role model, to say the least.

With an air of uneasiness about him, L went back to his bed and fell back asleep. According to what Kira could see, L still had quite a bit of time left to live. That was good for someone who was going to become Kira's representative. He had to have a long time left to live, otherwise Kira would have to go find someone else the second he died. That would have been absolutely pointless.

* * *

L awoke at around seven o' clock the following morning. He had a hopeful thought that the Death Note had just been a strange and pointless dream as he ambled drearily over to his dresser. Unfortunately, upon opening that same drawer, he saw the black notebook, its white letters mocking him as he stared at it. Why in the world had he bothered picking it up? Of course, as it had come into contact with him when it hit him in the head, he was the owner anyway. Speaking of which…. He touched his forehead where it had struck him, and he flinched. It definitely still hurt. It hurt quite badly, in fact. He walked over to the mirror on the other side of his room before bothering to get dressed and examined his forehead. There was a large bruise with a small cut in the middle of it. The corner of the notebook had to have caught him. How was he going to manage to explain that? "Oh, some random invisible death god flung a notebook at my head while I was asleep." He somehow had a feeling that wasn't a very valid way to explain things. It was definitely noticeable, even through his hair. There was always the option of telling people he'd walked into the door. Or fell out of bed. One or the other would probably be a decent excuse. It would definitely be better than trying to explain Shinigami to anyone who saw it.

He walked back to his dresser and took out one of many white long sleeve t-shirts as well as one of many pairs of baggy jeans. As he dressed, he was sure he saw _something_ out of the corner of his eye. He glanced back at the window. Nothing was there. He hadn't particularly wanted anything to be there, so that was a bit of a relief. However, he felt he was getting paranoid. He walked over to his bed and lay back down, staring at the ceiling blankly. The Kira case was over. He wasn't supposed to be paranoid. If that stupid notebook hadn't have showed up, he wouldn't have to be paranoid. Was there some chance that it was Rem? Maybe Ryuk? It seemed more likely to have been Ryuk. Rem was a fairly reasonable Shinigami. Ryuk would have done something like this for amusement. However, why would he have thrown it that hard? L rubbed his forehead, wondering if some Shinigami in the Shinigami world had seen him and randomly decided to dislike him.

He heard a knock at the door, followed by the yell of a familiar voice.

"L!"

"Yes?"

"Are you awake??"

"Obviously," L said in reply.

As L had expected, the door opened and there was immediately a very hyper boy with blond hair and a chocolate bar in one hand standing next to him. This morning, he was also waving papers in L's face.

"I scored higher than Near! Look, look, _look!!_" he demanded excitedly.

L sat up, still holding his forehead, and took the papers from Mello.

"Great job… but does Near know you have his test?" L asked, looking over the pre-calculus tests. Math was one of Near's strong points, so it was normal that Mello was this excited over getting a perfect score, especially since Near hadn't.

"Yes!" he said defensively. "I just took it from him about thirty seconds ago. I didn't ask if he minded, but I don't think he did. Why're you holding your head?" L took his hand off of his head and pushed his hair back for a moment. "Whoa! What happened there?"

"Walked into the door last night."

"Really?" Mello laughed. "Did you sleep at all durring the Kira case?"

"Not really." L handed the papers back. "It would have taken another year if I had."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes," he said, putting his hand back to his forehead. He had forgotten how irritating a sugar high Mello could be that early in the morning. "Quite a lot."

"You should probably go downstairs and get some ice, it looks horrid. Breakfast is in about five minutes, anyway, if you can stand eating anything besides cake. I have to take Near back his test before Roger finds –"

"Mello!" yelled the voice of a rather old, crotchety man from down the hall.

"_Damn_…" Mello said under his breath. "See you later, L…"

He skulked away towards the door with his head hanging in disappointment. L shut the door after him and breathed a sigh of relief. He walked over to the dresser and closed the drawer the Death Note was in. Mello, like any good aspiring detective, had a tendency to notice a lot of things that most people didn't tend to notice. If he had noticed that notebook, he probably would have picked it up and asked what it was. If any of the kids at the orphanage touched it… that would turn into a major problem. He'd _really_ have to hide it with Mello and Matt and Near running in and out of his room all day. If any of them found it and a Shinigami _did_ show up… that would be _very_ troublesome.

He knew that Mello and Matt used to like to randomly raid his room when he was at the orphanage. Nothing was safe from those two, not even his cake. Terrible as that was, L would rather they found the cake stashed in the small cooler under his bed than the Death Note in his sock drawer. He would have to find _some_ way to keep it out of their hands. L sat down on the bed and attempted to think of somewhere to keep it that they would never look. As he thought, he was unaware of the Shinigami looking in through his window for a moment before flying off to go somewhere more interesting for a bit.

* * *

"Roger's making me clean up the front garden later!"

"Why?" L asked, sitting down at the table at breakfast.

"Because he's stupid…" Mello grumbled.

"For taking Near's test?"

Mello nodded, taking a bite of a chocolate bar. "He wouldn't do that if anyone else took Near's test, I swear. The man's gone senile, someone should fire him. Can't you?"

"The only person who can fire him is Watari," L said, "and I doubt he will."

"What took you so long to get down here?" Mello asked. He really had a shorter attention span than a gnat sometimes. "You've been awake for at least half an hour."

"I was hiding something in case you and Matt decide to go on a raid."

"What?" Mello asked.

From next to Mello, a red head in orange goggles gave a snort of laughter. "Porn?" he said without looking up from his GameBoy.

"It's weird how he gets more perverted every time you leave," Mello said, looking at Matt.

"It's really weird how that's true and _I_ never even realized it," Matt said, looking at Mello with a bemused look on his face. "Oi," he added, his brow furrowing as he pointed at L's forehead. "Is that where you walked into your door?"

"Yes."

"So for all the crazy murder cases and whatnot you've solved," Matt said slowly, "you couldn't even figure out there was a door in front of your face?"

"That's a good point…" Mello said.

"Yeah," L said. "I suppose so. Now, tell me, how much sleep have the two of you gotten in the past year?"

"That's a good point, too," Matt said. "Those eye bags are insane, I was half wondering if you'd gone queer and started wearing eyeliner when you got back. Although, I would suggest getting some sort of make-up to cover up that thing on your forehead. It's rather ugly-looking."

"Cake!" Mello said abruptly. Matt and L looked at him questioningly. "I bet he was hiding his cake from us," he said to Matt.

"Ah, yeah, that makes sense, too," Matt agreed. "He wouldn't want us finding that, would 'e?"

"Definitely not," Mello said, standing up. "You know, I think I forgot something in my room."

"Oh, you mean that thing? I should probably help you find it."

Matt stood up as well. The two of them hurried off upstairs. They really were terrible at acting, really, but their attempts were at least mildly amusing compared to how dull the Kira case had been without any leads for a while. L also stood up and also went upstairs. He found Matt standing outside the door to his room. Matt looked into the room, then back at L.

"I swear, I told him not to," Matt said, shaking in silent laughter as he followed L in.

The first thing noticeable was that half of the clothes in his dresser had been strewn all about on the floor. At that moment, his closet was also being dismantled.

"Did you forget where your room was?"

In surprise at the sudden voice, Mello fell backwards off of the box he'd been standing on to look on a high shelf in the closet. He landed on a pile of white long sleeve shirts, which absorbed most of the shock of his landing. Matt burst out laughing, leaning sideways against the dresser.

"I thought I might have left it in your room," Mello said quickly.

"Left what in my room?"

"Err… the… thing. Right, Matt?" Matt was too busy laughing to answer. "See? Told you."

L sat on his bed and grabbed the book off of his nightstand.

"Just go on and finish your raid, you'll just be back later if you don't."

"Alright," Matt said, calmed down. "Alright, cool. Mello, seeing as you're about as thin as a rope, you check under the bed for it, that'll be easier for you. I'll finish checking the closet."

L already knew that the "thing" was absolutely anything remotely interesting that they could find to filch from him. They had been doing the same thing for years; it would be absolutely unreasonable for them to stop now. Mello's main goal was to find the cake. He would only take it if it was chocolate, but that was definitely his main goal. Luckily for L, he knew that they would never check to see if there were any loose floorboards in the room. He had pulled out the dresser and hidden the Death Note under a floorboard there that had been loose for years.

"Hey!" Mello yelled, his voice muffled by the underside of the mattress. "Random Kira files!"

He slid quickly back out from under the bed, pulling a box with him. He sat on the floor and opened it, completely sidetracked from the cake he'd been searching for. He pulled out a folder and opened it.

"Oi, Matt. 'Ere."

Matt jumped down from the box in the closet. He bent down to look at the folder and immediately swiped it.

"She's Japanese? She's pretty hot. Ah-Main Miss-uh?"

"Amane Misa," L corrected vaguely, still reading the book he had taken off of his dresser. "One of the suspects. She got off free."

"She doesn't look much like a psycho killer," Matt said. "There's 'er cell phone number. Maybe I'll give her a call later…"

"Best learn Japanese first," L said.

"Right," Matt said, sitting on the floor and closing the folder. He took out another folder. "This one was on the investigation team. Yagami Soy-Chiro."

"Soichiro," L corrected again.

"Same thing," Mello said, looking at the file. "Old dude. Chief investigator. Boring." He pulled out a few more folders and opened a random one. "Oi, this one's Yagami Light. They might be related. Ah! That one's 'is dad. This one was on the team and… also a suspect?" Mello looked at L. "You let a _suspect_ on the Kira investigation team? Couldn't that have been… er… _dangerous_??"

"He wasn't going to kill anyone right under my nose," L said. "And he didn't. As no one else believed he was Kira, it was the best way to keep an eye on him."

"What happened with him?" Matt asked.

"Died."

"_What??_" they said in unison.

"It turned out that he was Kira. He didn't want to be arrested, so he used his power to give himself a heart attack. He pretty much died like a worm, begging for us to show him mercy, then he gave up."

"Someone like that turned out to be Kira?" Mello said, looking at the file. He snorted with laughter. "And it actually took you a year to prove it? You're loosing your touch. Maybe I should go ahead and take over."

Kira watched from the window as the two young teenagers completely dismantled L's room. With L's back turned to the window, he couldn't tell that the room was being watched. Even so, L couldn't say much if he spotted a Shinigami with the other two in the room. That would have been out of the question. He had just lied about Kira's death to keep them from knowing about one Shinigami, after all. He would never allow any of the children at the orphanage to be aware of the fact that there could be one following him. If Kira didn't need L for his plan, he would have made the kids aware of his existence just to spite L. It was still L's fault he had died, and L was going to pay for it. He would pay for it in a different way, though. There was no better way to make him suffer than to force him to become the murderer he had hunted so intently.


	3. Chapter 2: Floating Notebook

_This is my first ever story to be included in a c2 community thingy! -jumps up and down happily-_

_YAY!_

_That's really good, because I'm quite enjoying working on this._

_Anyway. Moving on._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, I do own __**some**__ things, just not Death Note or any of its characters.  
And I only officially own one Death Note graphic novel because every freaking book store where I live stopped carrying them.  
Which sucks.  
That's why the internet and all of its graphic novel scans are so effing awesome._

* * *

It was night time again. Matt and Mello had left L's room earlier without bothering to clean anything up. He couldn't complain; even though L still had quite a bit of folding clothing and filing and general cleaning ahead of him, at least Mello hadn't found the cake. He had been completely sidetracked by the Kira case. His short attention span could be a good thing sometimes.

L finally lay down on his bed at about midnight to go to sleep, but he kept getting the strange feeling that he was being watched. He couldn't see how anyone could look through his window except a Shinigami, and he should be able to see the Shinigami from what he knew about Death Notes. That was too strange. Maybe the one that had dropped the Death Note – or, rather, threw it for him to find, was powerful enough to have others working for him. He didn't know much about Shinigami, so he supposed that could have been a possibility. Indeed, his assumption was at least close to the truth.

"_Ryuk, keep watch through the window and make sure he doesn't go for the note right now. If he does, throw something at him._"

"_I don't have to do what you say._" Ryuk cackled and took a bite out of an apple.

"_I didn't tell you to follow me. You can go back to the Shinigami world if you want to._" Kira crossed his arms as he hung upside down in the air. He was starting to get a hang of this flying thing. "_But that would probably be a lot more boring than what I have planned._"

"_Yeah, probably. What're you planning with Misa, though? You said something about that, too._"

"_Would it really be as interesting if I told you?_"

"_Nah._"

"_Then wait here._"

Kira flew down through the wall on the first floor, just below L's room. This room belonged to L's somewhat albino-looking follower. This boy was Near. He was a year or two younger than Matt and Mello, but he was recognized as being the smartest at this orphanage. He wasn't important at all to Kira. Kira was more interested in getting to his other Death Note without having to go in through L's dresser. He stuck his head up through the ceiling, just below the floor in L's room. He found the loose floor board the Note had been hidden under. He grabbed it and took it back into the other room. One of his wings hit a transformer toy on top of Near's dresser and knocked it down in the process. Kira froze.

Near sprung awake at the sound of the toy hitting the floor. He immediately spotted a notebook hovering in the air. He gaped. Kira decided it would be best not to regard this – the boy was obviously too scared to attempt to take the notebook and he couldn't see Kira, so there wasn't much to worry about. Kira opened the note and attached an extra page to it with a short message to L. Kira stuck his hand back through where the loose floorboard had been and left the Death Note there. He glanced over at Near, and he laughed at the sight of the boy cowering under his covers. He flew back through the wall and back by Ryuk.

"_I just scared the hell out of one of the kids here,_" Kira said, laughing. "_That Near kid saw the Death Note floating in the air when he woke up._"

Ryuk cackled. "_Nice. No movement here, L's asleep now. I thought this was supposed to be interesting? He's just – hey! Get your own apple!_"

Kira had taken Ryuk's half eaten apple and stuck his arm through the wall with it. With a fairly well aimed pitch, he tossed it at L, and it hit him in the back of the head. He swore, sitting up, just as Kira withdrew his arm from the wall.

"_Can I go get it back…?_" Ryuk asked as L picked up the apple and looked around avidly. "_Oh, looks like I won't have to._"

"_What?_"

"_You should probably hide before he sees you._"

A very confused L opened his window and attempted to throw the apple out. However, Ryuk caught it. Kira ducked back into Near's room before L could look around the side of the open window. L shut his window after a quick look around and went immediately for his dresser. The Shinigami had to be trying to send him some sort of message. What was the point in throwing things at him otherwise? There wasn't one. As he started to pull the dresser back, there was a knock on the door. L left the dresser where it was and went to the door.

"Yes?" he said.

"L!" Near's voice said quietly. "Open the door!"

This was odd. It was normally Mello who showed up in the middle of the night with something completely pointless to say. Confused, L opened the door. Near looked as though he had just seen a ghost. Perhaps he had. He looked around quickly.

"Something knocked something over in my room and there was a floating notebook."

"What?" L said, trying not to appear to nervous. This Shinigami couldn't have been to smart.

"There was a –"

"What happened to it, then?"

"It went up through the ceiling after something put another page in it. I didn't see what it was, it didn't look like anything, it was just a floating notebook."

"Are you sure it wasn't a dream?"

"Yes!" Near said quickly. "The thing it knocked off my dresser is still on the floor, so it's not a dream unless I'm still dreaming, and I don't think I am. Your room's right above mine, so the notebook has to be under a floorboard somewhere in here, I think it would probably be under the dresser, shouldn't you check–?"

"Near," L said, "go back to bed. It was probably just a dream."

Near sighed, turned around, and walked off grumbling. L shut his door, locked it, and went back to pulling the dresser out. So the Shinigami had added a page right in front of someone in the orphanage. That could be very dangerous. Considering that Near was quite reasonable, L didn't even want to _think_ about what would happen if Matt or Mello saw a floating notebook in _their_ room in the middle of the night. Matt probably wouldn't worry about it much unless Mello saw it, too. Mello would probably go on a ghost hunt until he found the Death Note. L had to forfeit it before anything else happened.

"_Wow_," Ryuk said as he watched L pull out his dresser, "_that Near kid really freaked out, didn't he? I wonder what he'd do with a Death Note._"

"_Probably find out Matt and Mello's real names and write those down,_" Kira said, sitting down on a windowsill of another room. "_What's L doing?_"

"_Pulling out his dresser_," Ryuk said. "_Things are getting a little more interesting now. He's just lifted up the loose floor board, and he's got the Death Note. Now he's sitting on the floor and looking at the new page._"

"_Let me know his reaction._"

Horrorstruck. That was his reaction. This Shinigami supported Kira's actions but couldn't act in the same way? Judging by that apple… was it Ryuk? No, Ryuk didn't support Kira, he just thought the whole mess was hysterically funny. Right? Maybe he did support Kira. No, that was _impossible_! He read through the message over again. _I support Kira, but I cannot act in his steed. I need to find someone to do so. You seem like a very likely candidate._ It was all nonsensical. Did this Shinigami know absolutely nothing about who L was, what role he had played in Kira's death? He obviously didn't…. So, apparently he wasn't particularly smart. If there were dumb humans, there had to be dumb Shinigami, didn't there? It did make sense.

But then nothing about it seemed to make sense. L was getting Death Notes, as well as _apples_, now, thrown at him on a nightly basis. That couldn't have been normal at all. It was lucky that Near had been the one to see the notebook. He was smart enough not to tell any of the other children. Unfortunately, Near was probably also smart enough to know that L knew something about the notebook. That wasn't lucky at all. L put the notebook back under the loose floorboard. Ryuk looked at Kira.

"_He's not going to write any names._"

"_He put it back?_"

"_Yep. Now he's doing that thing where he chews on his thumb and looks like a maniac._"

"_Good,_" Kira said, grinning. "_He's nervous. He might start thinking about writing a name soon._"

"_What makes you so sure he will?_"

"_Ryuk_," Kira said, "_do you remember a certain high school student who picked up your Death Note in Japan?_"

Ryuk looked at Kira. "_Yeah._"

"_Well, L is a lot like he was then. If Yagami Light wrote a name on the Death Note, I think L might consider it, too. He also knows it'll drive him insane if he doesn't try it. Soon, he'll go into a phase where he thinks it might be fake. That's when he'll move, and that's when I'll move._"

"_What's the waiting for?_"

"_If I go now, he'll try to forfeit it. He needs to think for a while before he has the chance to forfeit it._"

"_For a Shinigami, you think an awful lot like a human._"

Kira glared at Ryuk. "_I was a human until you killed me. I still basically look like I used to, anyway. Did you believe I'd start thinking differently if I turned into a Shinigami._"

"_I don't know._"

L looked at the window. He was _sure_ he had heard talking for a moment. That could have only meant one thing: there had to be two Shinigami. Judging by the apple, it was possible that Ryuk was one of them. There was about a twenty percent chance of it. He was probably interested in what the other Shinigami was doing, so he was helping. As L couldn't see him anymore, that was perfect. He could be used to keep watch while the other Shinigami hid from L's sight. Why was he so keen on hiding, though? That was the one thing he couldn't figure out. There were two Shinigami following him. That was a very troubling thought, and definitely not a very pleasant one to sleep on.

It was like the Kira case all over again. L stayed up all night staring at the wall as he chewed his thumbnail down as far as it could go without bleeding. He then moved on to his other thumbnail. This stupid Shinigami was sending him back into the paranoia he had been in durring the Kira case. There was no way out of it if he couldn't forfeit that Death Note. How long would it take the Shinigami to show itself? Was it waiting for something…? It had to be waiting for _something_, even if L couldn't figure out what it was waiting for. Otherwise, it would have shown itself to him already. It was obvious that it was there, it just wasn't obvious what it was doing. It couldn't have been waiting for him to write a name… could it? Did it have _any_ idea who he was? If Yagami Light were still alive, he might have considered writing _his_ name, but Ryuk had already done that. That was the _only_ name he would have even considered writing, as he was going to be sentenced to death, anyway. But then there was Amane Misa…. She had no memory, but she had still been Kira's accomplice. If she ever got a Death Note and regained her memory, it would be the Kira case all over again…. He _could _prevent that from happening again, but…

No, what was he thinking?? Killing was wrong no matter what way it was put, even if it was to stop a murderer. Death sentences were decided by the law. If L killed without the law, he would be just as bad as Kira. But if Amane Misa got another Death Note, she would end up being put to death, which meant that…. It was all too confusing. L looked over at his dresser, or rather under his dresser, glaring at the floorboard he couldn't see that concealed that wretched notebook. It was going to drive him insane. Maybe that was this Shinigami's intention, to drive him insane so he couldn't work on the Kira case if it all started again. Then it wouldn't have seemed so stupid. That was obviously a good plan, as it was already working.

"_He looks like he's about to start pulling his hair out_," Ryuk said, cackling. "_I think you were right, it is gonna drive him nuts. I wonder if he's thinking about using it._"

"_He probably is,_" Kira said.

"_Now he's looking at the window. He __**can**__ hear you talk, you know? You should probably keep it down or he might come over here and look._"

"_Shit, I forgot about that. Yeah, I should keep it down a little more. I got used to no one around here being able to hear me._"

* * *

L headed downstairs the next morning at around six. No one was awake. He had stayed up all night pondering, so he was grateful for the lack of loud children when he went to get a cup of coffee. However, he nearly spilled the coffee on himself when he turned around and realized there was at least one of them awake.

"Near," he said, "what're you up so early for?"

"Would you be able to sleep if you saw a flying notebook in your room?"

"I told you, that was probably a dream."

"I don't know what it was, but I'm never touching Optimus Prime again. I think he's haunted."

_This __**really**__ isn't good… that stupid Shinigami_….

"Did you check under your dresser to see if it was there?"

"No," L said.

"I really think –"

"Near," L said, "you're smart, aren't you?"

"Yes," Near said slowly, "I suppose."

"Then is there any logical explanation for a notebook to have been floating in your room in the middle of the night?"

"Possibly. But there would be no logical explanation for how it could have floated through the ceiling."

"Then is it possible?"

"I didn't think so."

"Then logically, could it have happened?"

"… No. At least, I didn't think so."

L sighed. "Near, you can think about it as much as you want, but there's no way you'll be able to make sense of it even if it did happen. Just don't worry about it unless it happens again."

_Most humans aren't even as dumb as this Shinigami must be…_ L thought to himself, taking a sip of coffee as Near walked away with a sigh. _What advantage could it possibly get from more than one person knowing about it? It just doesn't make any __**sense**__!_

L went back up to his room after a few minutes of pondering. He looked at his bed as he walked in. He hadn't remembered straightening the covers before he left to go downstairs. He probably had. He was too tired to remember was all. However, he found out different when he sat down. L quickly stood back up and pulled back the covers.

"_Apples…_" he grumbled under his breath, seeing that the side of the bed he generally slept on was covered in the red orbs. "Freaking _apples_…"

He set his coffee on his night stand and picked up the small, empty trash can next to it. He proceeded to sweep the apples into the can. He walked over to the window when he finished it, opened the window, and dumped the apples outside. This _had_ to be Ryuk, unless there were more Shinigami like him. _That_ was a nasty thought: smart ass death gods flying around all over the place and throwing apples at people who couldn't see them.

"_Was there even a point in that?_" Kira asked Ryuk as he flew back up to the window with one of the dropped apples.

"_It was amusing_." Ryuk took a bite of the apple. "_I can't eat __**all**__ the apples on all the trees around here, you know. I need something to do with them._"

"_You could take up juggling and scare the little kids with them when they come outside. That seems like something that would entertain you._"

"_Nah,_" Ryuk said. "_You said it's safer if just L knows we're floating around here. You already let that other one know you're here._"

That was a pretty bad mistake on Kira's part. He really needed to learn to stop misjudging his wingspan. He didn't even _have_ a wingspan until a couple days ago, so it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to get used to. It was definitely interesting, this new form, but it was something completely new to him. Shinigami were a lot different than humans, even though Kira himself still looked mostly humanoid. He wondered if that was what happened to all humans who were turned into Shinigami. If his plans for L worked out, then he would find out soon enough. Just in case he couldn't act, he still needed a back-up who was more willing to help him than Ryuk was. After all, Kira had a feeling Ryuk was only in this for the apple trees that were growing all around the yards of The Wammy's House. He was basically independent and he was only helping Kira for his own amusement. Kira wasn't complaining about this, as any help was quite good. Because Ryuk could fly off to find something more interesting to do at any moment, since playing random pranks on L probably wouldn't be enough to amuse him for a very long period of time, Kira definitely needed a more loyal ally. His plan was falling into play so far, so it would only be a matter of time before he had what he required.

* * *

_Will L get more stuff thrown at him?_

_Will Near's relationship with Optimus Prime ever recover?_

_Will Kira figure out how to not knock crap over with his new wings?_

_Will Ryuk find a new, more interesting apple source?_

_And most of all, what the heck is Kira up to this time?_

_You will all find out - as will I - when I write the next chapter. Seeing as I basically just work on the plot as I go along. Well, I do know what Kira's up to. The rest of you will just have to wait and see if ya can't figure it out._

_**Aaaaaaanyway. This is my first ever story to be up for less than twenty-four hours and already have four comments. So thanks uberly much, people!**_


	4. Chapter 3: Irregular Paranoia

_Now this is in __**two**__ c2 communities. __**TWO**__!! -excited squeal-_

_I'm so happy… if you couldn't already tell._

_Disclaimer: Same as always. I don't own anything. Not even my ideas. Those are officially the property of my other personalities – they stole them from me. Luckily, they gave me permission to use them to write stories. It's your choice to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing._

_I know I'm updating this way more than the rest of my stories at the moment, but I'm getting more and more ideas for this one by the second. If I don't write them, then my short attention span will either toss them out my ear or my other personalities will claim them._

_I am going to get back to my other stories very soon._

_But for now, here's another chapter of this 'un._

* * *

"Oi, L! Near said he saw a notebook floating in his room last night. Can you _believe_ that?"

L sat down at the main table durring breakfast at The Wammy's House. Why would Near have told Mello, of all people, that he had seen a floating notebook? That made less sense than the apple L had seen floating outside his window before he left his room to go downstairs a few minutes ago. L blinked at Mello a couple times.

"Why'd he tell you that?" L asked.

"Me and Matt got down here before anyone but him and we started bugging him about why he wasn't asleep like the rest of the little kids." L rolled his eyes. Mello didn't seem to care much. "He told us after about fifteen minutes that he wasn't going back in his room because he saw a notebook floating in there. Did he say anything to you about it?"

"Yes, when I got coffee earlier," L said.

"You don't believe it, right? I mean, it's completely ridiculous, he couldn't have been telling the truth."

"I believe Near really thinks he saw it, and that he may have seen something, but not that exactly."

Mello tilted his head slightly in confusion. "What?" He shook his head. "He also said his transformer toy fell off the dresser and that's what woke him up. I think he's just making it up to see if I do anything. He does stuff like that a lot, it's like he thinks I'm stupid just because I make lower scores on my tests than him, you know?"

"You're not stupid, Mello," Matt said, looking up from his game for a moment, "just ignorant."

"Oh, shut up," Mello grumbled. "… don't know what you're talking about at _all_…"

"Yes I do," Matt said. "I've been living in the same room with you for years, you know."

L listened to the two exchange random insults for a few more minutes as he finished his third cup of coffee of the morning. He headed back to his room after. He locked his door behind him and checked to make sure his Death Note was still there – no, not _his_ Death Note, he laid no claim to it whatsoever. He didn't want it in the first place. It was still there, but it was accompanied by something else. This something else was probably the main cause of the scream of terror from down the hall.

"_IT'S GONE!_"

L flinched slightly as he looked at the numerous bars of chocolate. They had to have been Mello's, as he seemed to have already missed them. L quickly moved them out of the hole in the floor, replaced the board, and put the dresser back in place. Before Mello could run up and down the hall yelling about missing chocolate, L decided to take action. He quickly tossed the bars on the bed and headed down the hall. He looked into Matt and Mello's room to see Mello dismantling the room. Matt was standing at the doorway, looking in at Mello. Matt looked back at L.

"His chocolate's gone missing."

"I think someone put it in my room," L said.

"Wait before you tell him," Matt said, grinning as he looked back in the room. "This could be funny."

"You didn't do it, did you?"

"No," Matt said. "His precious chocolate stash was still perfectly in tact when I left. I don't know who would have done that. I'd've been scared to. Taking his chocolate is like poking a lion in the eye with a stick."

Mello sat in the middle of the floor, looking hopeless. He looked around at the mess in the room, then at the doorway.

"L!" he said frantically, jumping back up to his feet. "Chocolate! Gone!"

"'E said 'e found it in his room," Matt said, looking at L.

"_You_ took my chocolate??" Mello accused, his eyes widening maddeningly.

"No," L said. "I went in my room and it was sitting on the bed. I left the door open, it could have been anyone."

"Bet it was Near…" Mello said irritably, pushing past Matt and L. "I'll get him back for this…"

_Whatever Shinigami this is_, L thought to himself as he followed Mello back to his own room, _really shouldn't be messing with anyone who doesn't have a Death Note. This could be very bad if it keeps up._

Ryuk hovered in front of L's window, sniggering as the blond kid picked the pile of chocolate up off of the bed. He looked over at Kira, who was writing a few names in his own Death Note.

"_You work too much,_" Ryuk said.

"_There's nothing better to do when someone can see you and someone else knows you exist._"

"_This kid really likes chocolate. Is chocolate that good? I've never had any, I might have to steal some. I don't think he'll realize if __**one**__ goes missing._"

"_Seeing how Mello acts, I'm willing to bet he starts taking inventory of it for the next month after this._"

"I bet _you_ did this!"

Ryuk looked back at the window at the sound of the angered yell. He sniggered as the blond pointed threateningly at his friend in the orange goggles.

"This is the one thing I wouldn't _dare_ do," Matt said, raising his hands in surrender. "I'd be too afraid of the results. You're probably right about it being Near. He's probably trying to make us think it was a ghost or something."

"Probably!" Mello said in anger. "Stupid little shit…"

Mello and Matt walked out of the room. L shut the door behind the two and locked the door again. Without sleep, it was harder to deal with those two barging in unexpectedly at all hours of the day. L walked over to the mirror next to the window and checked on the bruise the Death Note had left him. The cut in the middle had healed over, and the bruise had become a large yellow patch. It still hurt quite a bit. He might just throw something at the Shinigami when it decided to show itself. Perhaps an apple – those definitely seemed to be in abundance lately, they were popping up all over his room.

"_You're really enjoying this, aren't you?_" Kira asked boredly, still scribbling away in his Death Note.

Ryuk was still cackling. "_I've never seen any human get that angry. Your dad wasn't even that angry when he found out you __**were**__ Kira. This is awesome. I think I'm gonna throw an apple at that 'Near' kid that saw you when no one's looking. Or when those other two are looking, that should be interesting._"

"_Knock yourself out. I've got planning to do. Try to keep an eye on L. I need to know if he gets out the Death Note._"

"_Alright._"

Ryuk flew off in the direction of the apple trees and perched himself on top of one to make sure no one was looking. Kira looked back at his Death Note. He looked at the name Amane in it, and then thought for a moment. If he didn't write the rest of her name, then…. He grinned a malevolent grin and scratched through the name. That could definitely make things even more interesting.

"_Hey_."

Kira looked up to see Ryuk had flown back next to him.

"_Yes?_"

"_Do humans have stuff to investigate ghosts?_"

"_There's equipment for it and people who specialize in it, yes._"

"_I wonder what would happen if they called some here because of apples being thrown at small children…_"

"_Is there any way for a human to banish a Shinigami back to Mu?_"

"_Nope._"

"_Then they'd just get confused and leave._"

"_Huh. That could be fun…_"

Ryuk flew off again. This could be a problem with Kira's plans, but there was absolutely no way to control Ryuk. Even when Kira had been human and Ryuk had been forced to follow him around, it wasn't like he could tell Ryuk to go spy on someone and expect him to actually do it. He'd just return an hour later with an apple and say he forgot about the spying, and then there would be news reports the next day of local convenient stores closing due to apples literally walking out the door and eating themselves as they went. The only way Ryuk would obey anyone was if the orders he was given were remotely interesting to him. Watching L had just given him a way to kill his time durring the night. Durring the day, he was probably going to play pranks on everyone else.

"Hey!" Kira heard a little kid yell from around the front of the orphanage. "That apple's eating itself! _Look!_"

Following that was the sound of a cackle that only Kira was able to hear.

"Wow, it really is!"

"That's so weird!"

"It's a ghost!"

So, that obviously _was_ what Ryuk had planned. He probably wanted paranormal investigators to come in so he could play pranks on them, too. That was just Ryuk's nature. After hundreds of years of boredom in the Shinigami world, the human world had far too many possibilities for fun for him to resist. A moment later, Ryuk flew back around to the side of the orphanage that Kira was on.

"_I think I should take up juggling_," he said. "_These kids are hilarious._"

"_Go ahead._"

"_I think I might throw a few apples first._"

Kira rolled his eyes as Ryuk flew off again. He was stuck with a Shinigami that acted more like a toddler than a reaper helping him. Ryuk had been… sort of a help so far, so that wasn't such a bad thing. Of course, a few minutes later, Kira heard the sounds of Matt and Mello banging on L's door loudly and yelling.

"L!" Mello yelled. "Open up!"

"Why?" L said.

"There's something outside!" Matt yelled.

Kira heard the door open inside the room.

L looked down at the two boys. They appeared to be somewhere between horrified and absolutely awestruck.

"What're you talking about?"

"There was a floating apple that looked like it was eating itself," Mello said. "I think Near might've been telling the truth about the notebook he saw."

"Floating apple?" L repeated blankly.

"_Everyone_ saw it," Matt said. "It was fucking _awesome_! Well, Near didn't, but he never goes outside."

"D… does Roger know about it?"

"No," Mello said. "If _we_ tell him, he'll just hit us with his cane, you know him. I don't get how someone who hates kids can run _this_ place, you know?"

"Yeah," L said shortly. "It probably wouldn't be the greatest idea in the world to tell him. If it's serious enough, he'll figure it out eventually."

"I hope whatever it is chucks an apple at him," Matt said hopefully.

"Yeah," Mello agreed. "That'd be priceless."

They both left, discussing how they could talk something they couldn't see into throwing things at people they disliked. L shut the door. He sat back down on his bed and rolled his eyes, coming to a conclusion. No Shinigami other than Ryuk could _possibly_ have thought to pull the apple trick. The Shinigami with him had no control over Ryuk's actions, or Ryuk wouldn't be acting so obvious. He enjoyed playing pranks on people. The other Shinigami was using Ryuk to spy on him, L, under the condition that Ryuk could occasionally play pranks on him. Again, there was a knock at L's door. He assumed it was Mello and Matt again, so he walked over and opened it. An apple floated in front of him. He stared at the apple for a moment, and then shut the door disinterestedly. The apple then flew through the closed door and out the window. Ryuk was obviously enjoying this. L looked over and saw the apple "eating itself" outside the window.

"_Hey_," Ryuk said to Kira.

Kira looked over. "_Yes?_"

"_L's not acting surprised anymore._"

"_He probably knows you're here._"

"_Eh? How would he have figured that out?_"

"_He's probably assumed that there can't possibly be another Shinigami who would ever play as many apple-oriented pranks as you._"

"_Ah. Yeah. That makes sense. If he's not going to be freaked out by anything anymore, then I might have to leave._"

"_You mean you don't even want to know about my plans for Misa?_"

"_Oh. Right. Forgot about that. I might stick around a little longer for that._"

"_Thought you might_."

* * *

"Heey, Near."

Mello sat down on the floor in the main room of the orphanage, next to Near. He didn't look up from his puzzle at this, or at Matt sitting on his other side. He was obviously expecting the worst.

"I suppose you heard the commotion outside a moment ago since the door's right over there?" Matt said.

"Yes."

"Well," Mello said, "there was actually a floating apple out there."

"I'm not dumb just because you scored higher than me on one test, Mello," Near said. "You should know that."

"You can ask anyone who was outside," Matt said. "We're being dead serious. I've never gone this long in my life without saying _something_ completely stupid. We believe you about the notebook now."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," Mello said. "Really. You said it floated up through the ceiling?"

"Right."

"Whose room is above yours?"

Near looked from Matt to Mello. "You two are actually being serious, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I just said that a moment ago, didn't I?" Matt said.

"L's room is on the floor just above my room."

"Near," Matt said. "Do you know where in L's room it would have floated to?"

"If I'm thinking correctly," Near said, twirling a loch of his hair around one of his fingers, "from what I saw when I spoke to him last night, it would probably be under the dresser if it's anywhere."

"And you said whatever did that also knocked over one of your toys?"

"Yes."

"From how high the apple was off the ground," Mello said slowly, "it's presumable this thing can fly. That means it _may_ have wings. As it stuck the notebook through the ceiling, it had to be pretty high up. That means it could have knocked over the toy by accident while getting the notebook. Near, what did it do with the notebook?"

"It looked like it added a page to it before it stuck it back through the ceiling."

"I bet the page was a message to L," Mello said. "We have to either get him to look for it or find it ourselves."

"Judging by his actions when I spoke to him about it," Near said, "I think he may already know about the notebook, and he may know what is making random objects float off of the ground. He's acting a little suspicious at least."

"That could just be because L is paranoid by nature," Matt said.

"No," Near said, "this isn't his regular paranoia. It's –"

_Crunch._

The three boys looked around, only to find themselves gaping at an apple floating behind them with a bite taken out of it. The apple fell on Mello's head.

"OW!" he yelled. Matt laughed. "That wasn't _funny!_"

"Apple-head," Matt said, still laughing.

Ryuk watched as Matt and Mello began fighting about whether it was funny or not, and Near, with a sigh, went back to his puzzles. So it was three geniuses in training versus one trained genius – that was definitely interesting. Ryuk was quite grateful that he had managed to set this chain of events off. He couldn't wait to see Kira's reaction if he thought his plan was going to be foiled by three young teenagers. Would he kill them, or spare them because they were small children and just use them to his advantage? L already assumed that Ryuk was there, so he wouldn't be much fun to bother any more. Throwing an occasional apple at him in the middle of the night could be fun, but not as fun as setting off these kids had been. If anyone was going to find the Death Note, it would be these three. Maybe L would be able to stop them from doing it, maybe not. Whatever. It would be one hell of an entertaining show either way it happened.

Ryuk grabbed his apple from the floor and flew up through the ceiling of that room, then the second floor. He found himself up above the orphanage, and so he flew off to the side where Kira was. It wouldn't be as fun if Ryuk told Kira what he had just set off. He supposed it would be best to wait and let Kira find out for himself. As they were Shinigami, it was impossible for Kira to kill him out of anger, though he might try to punch Ryuk. Kira used to be human, and those instincts wouldn't have gone away quite yet. It would probably take him quite a few more years as a Shinigami before he started to loose his human nature. It would still be a long time before he realized what being a Shinigami meant. It meant godlike immortality, sure, but it also meant picking and choosing your victims wasn't something that was allowed.

After a while of being a Shinigami, he would start to realize different things over time and Ryuk's fun would be over. That would be when Ryuk would look for another interesting human to drop a Death Note in the path of. It had been fun to watch Yagami Light change from a regular high school student into a complete psycho, then into a Shinigami, and the fun would go on for a while longer. He was fine with that for now. He'd worry about whom to give a Death Note to next when the time came.

"_Ryuk,_" Kira said, looking up from his Death Note, "_you're up to something, aren't you?_"

"_Yep._"

"_What is it, then?_"

Ryuk cackled. "_It won't be as interesting if I tell you._"

What better way for him to answer Kira than with one of Kira's favorite answers?

"_I suppose not._"

* * *

_What will Kira do about this new challenge that Ryuk has presented him?_

_Will Near join forces with Mello and Matt to locate the mysterious floating notebook?_

_Will Mello find out what the heck dropped an apple on his head?_

_Will Ryuk bring paranormal investigators to the orphanage for him to have fun with? _

_Will Mello and Matt talk the invisible thing that eats apples into bombarding Roger with apples?_

_Will I stop asking inane questions and get to the freaking point already?_

_Will we find out what the f-ck Kira is planning to do with Misa?_

_But most importantly: Will L remember that there is a cake hidden under his bed before it goes stale?_

_All this and more within the next chapter or the chapter after that or the chapter after that or_…._ You get what I'm saying, right? I would definitely hope so._


	5. Chapter 4: Invisible Chocolate Thief

_I'm really grateful for all the favs/alerts this story has accumulated._

_Thanks everyone :)_

_I __**will**__ start working on my other stories again soon, I swear. I'm going to try to work on another chapter of __**The King's Note**__ tonight once I finish this. I just need to get this chapter out of my mind before it disappears._

_Disclaimer: I still own nothing._

* * *

"_Hey, check it out, someone's breaking in._"

"_What?? Is L awake?_"

"_Nope._"

Kira stuck his head through the wall outside and looked in. The doorknob on L's door was moving. Kira heard a cackle from Ryuk and came back outside. He looked at Ryuk, who was watching through the window with a very amused look on his face, a much more amused look than Kira had ever witnessed Ryuk having about anything.

"_What did you do?_"

"_Nothing intentional._"

"Got it!"

Ryuk and Kira looked in through the window as Matt was opening the door. He looked back at Mello and Near.

"Alright, Near," he said quietly. He handed Near a stick. "You poke him and make sure he's not going to wake up."

"Why do I have to do that?"

"Because me and Mello are going to be moving the dresser."

"_Shit!_" Kira said. "_Death Note! Ryuk, you __**idiot**__!_"

Ryuk cackled in amusement as Kira quickly flew through the wall into Near's room. He watched as Matt and Mello moved the dresser back. Would Kira be quick enough? They lifted up the loose floorboard.

"Notebook!" Mello said. He started to reach for it, but it disappeared through the floor. "Huh?"

Ryuk cackled as Kira flew back out through the wall, glaring at Ryuk with a distain that he had never seen before. This only made him laugh harder, however.

"_What did you do?_"

"_They figured it out on their own,_" Ryuk said. "_The blond and the redhead started believing the white-haired one when they saw the apple out in the front of this place, and they started discussing it and came to the conclusion that they needed to search L's room._"

"What're you doing?"

Ryuk looked back and cackled again.

L sat up, looking at Near, Matt, and Mello. His dresser was pulled out. Matt was holding onto a floorboard, Mello was gaping at the hole in the floor, and Near was holding a stick. L rubbed his eyes, wondering if the scene would disappear after a moment. It didn't.

"There was a notebook!" Mello said, pointing at the hole. "It disappeared!"

"What're you talking about?"

"It just fucking _disappeared_!" Mello exclaimed, pointing at the hole. He knocked on the wood underneath where the floorboard had been. "It was right _there_!"

"I saw it, too," Matt said, nodding.

"I told you I saw it," Near said to L. "The thing that put it there got it back before we could get it."

L looked around at the three of them, attempting to comprehend the scene. The notebook was gone. None of them had touched it, which was a _very_ lucky thing. However, they knew it existed now, which was bad. Ryuk had basically led them to it. He was probably hovering outside the window laughing at the whole mess. The other Shinigami was smart enough to take the notebook, but he had gotten it in the nick of time. All three of them had seen it before it disappeared, meaning that they all knew something was going on, and it had to be something very weird.

"You know, I'm wondering," Mello said. "Near, do you know anything about any missing chocolate?"

"Huh…?"

"He doesn't. He wouldn't have sounded confused if he did. That means the thing that just made the notebook disappear and has been playing with apples also put my chocolate in here. Possibly. I think."

"It looked more like it floated down through the floor," Matt said, "like something reached through the ceiling on the floor below and grabbed it, you know?"

"Yeah," Mello said. "You're right, that is what it looked like. And you know what?" Mello looked at L. "I think you knew it was there."

"Wh… what?" L said. "I still don't even know what you're _talking_ about, for one."

"You never used to keep your door locked," Matt agreed, nodding. "That means you had to have been hiding _something_ important. Is the notebook a remnant from the Kira case or something? I'll bet it is, since you had to have either come back with it or gotten it shortly after the case was over and you returned here."

"And that thing that's been flinging apples around didn't show up until you came back, right?" Mello said. "Was Kira even _human_?"

"Yes," L said. "Yagami Light _was_ Kira. I've already told you that."

"Then maybe Yagami had something following him," Matt said. "You _did_ see what the front of that notebook said, right?" he asked Mello.

Mello nodded. "'Death Note.' What else could _that_ mean? That's _got_ to be something to do with Kira, right? Is it files on the Kira case?"

"What if that's what Yagami used to kill as Kira?" Matt said.

"What? I know paper cuts are murder, but… not _literally_, Matt."

"I mean, what if the thing that took it was following Kira, right? Maybe that was how Yagami communicated with it, and it would kill whoever he told it to, and it's following L now since Yagami's dead?"

_Shiiiit… not good at __**all**__… _L thought to himself. _Dammit… just play dumb, act like you don't know about it, they won't find out if you don't let on that you know anything… damn you, Ryuk_….

"Honestly, I never found out how Yagami Light killed," L said. "So for all I know, you could be right."

"I think that's ridiculous," Near said to Matt. "If the thing that's here was going to kill anyone, then it probably would have by now. All it's done so far is made things float and dropped an apple on Mello's head."

Matt snorted in laughter. Mello glared at him.

"Apple-head…"

"Shut up!"

"I think it might have something to do with the Kira case, but I think that this 'Yagami' person was probably the one doing the actual killing. Maybe the thing that's here just gave him what he needed to do it."

"Like… a _Death Note_?" Mello said dramatically. "If you think about the thing on the front of it, wouldn't that mean, like, notebook of death or something?"

_If I let them keep doing this, they'll figure out the whole Kira case and start pestering me about it…_ L thought to himself. _I need to get them to stop._

"How would _that_ work?" Matt said.

"I don't know," Mello said. "That would just lead right back to my original theory."

"Notebook!" Matt said suddenly, pointing at the window.

Kira ducked out of the way of the window as L looked back. Ryuk looked at him, grinning.

"_Did you forget they could see that?_"

"_Only for a moment._"

Ryuk cackled and looked back in the window.

"Where?" L said, looking outside.

"It _was_ right there until you turned around," Mello said.

"I saw it, too," Near agreed, nodding. "It was right outside the window. And I think there's two of these things."

"What?" Mello said. "Why?"

"Behavioral patterns," Near said. "One of them seems protective of that notebook. It doesn't want us to find out about it. It probably only added an extra page in front of me because it figured there was nothing to worry about it I only saw a notebook hovering in the air. It didn't purposely wake me up, it knocked my Optimus Prime toy off my dresser and I woke up.

"The other seems to enjoy playing pranks more. It let itself be known of in front of a crowd of small children by floating in the air eating an apple, and then it dropped one of Mello's head."

"So," Mello said, "we have a some kind of ghost that's obsessed with notebooks, and a poltergeist obsessed with apples and dropping them on people. Shut up," he added as Matt began sniggering again.

"Maybe," Near said, "but I don't know that much, considering they're invisible. It could be two of the same thing, but with different behavioral patterns. You can't know if you can't see them."

"If either of them was following around Kira and gave him the power to kill, it could be some kind of Reaper, right?" Mello said.

"That would make sense," Near said. "Or, at least about as much sense as any theory could make in a case like the Kira case."

"Can you go discuss this somewhere else and let me get some sleep?" L suggested.

"But you were part of the Kira case! Shouldn't you be worried about this?" Mello said.

"Kira is dead," L said. "The Kira case is over. I don't have to worry about it anymore, and I'm quite glad about that."

Mello sighed, standing up. "Come on," he said to Matt and Near. "Let's go."

Mello and Matt pushed the dresser back in place and followed Near out the door. L walked over and locked it behind them, then he walked back over to his bed. He sat down and looked at the window just as an apple was floating into view. He could almost hear Ryuk's annoying cackle of amusement at the near discovery of the notebook. L walked back over to the dresser and pulled it out. He lifted up the loose floorboard, and there was the notebook. He picked it up and looked at it, wondering what in the world he had done to deserve such an item. Then he thought about what he had said. _Kira is dead_. Was that even true? What if, by some strange mistake, Yagami Light was still alive? No, that was impossible. That was completely impossible. There was _no way_ that Yagami Light could have still been alive. It was obvious Ryuk was there…. L looked back at the window to see the now half-eaten apple still floating there. If L could have killed Ryuk using the Death Note, he would have in a second.

* * *

Being treated like a human being by Matt and Mello was completely new to Near. It was definitely better than being constantly tormented, but considering how idiotic they could be, he wasn't sure if this was much of an improvement. They were very easily sidetracked and not very good for helping with research, not even on something this interesting. As they were regarded as two of the smartest, however, they were definitely the best of the children at the orphanage to help. It _was_ their idea to invade L's room in the first place. Without having done that, they wouldn't have been able to formulate a theory that all three of them agreed on.

"Research?" Mello groaned. "But this is actually something _cool_, research would just make it boring…"

"We need to find out what this is, don't we?" Near said. "Your computer has internet access, just find a good search engine and type in floating apples. There can't be too many occurrences similar to the ones here, so there has to be something to explain it."

Mello and Matt looked at him blankly. Near walked over to the computer.

"I'll do it, then."

"What do we do?" Matt asked.

Near typed something on the keyboard of the computer. "Come up with another plan to get that notebook. One that involves L not being in the room at the time. I imagine he already knew it was there, and he has a reason for not wanting us to get near it."

"Yeah," Mello agreed. "The question is, why."

"Maybe touching the notebook makes it so you can see the things that're floating around here. I think – wait a minute…"

"What?"

"This news website," Near said. "It's an old article from last year. It talks about apples floating out of convenience stores in Japan. There's a few different occurrences named here, all in the Kanto region of Japan."

"That's where Kira was," Matt said slowly.

"And this didn't start happening until after Kira first started murdering. I think the things here are definitely connected to Kira."

"They're not following L to try to off him, are they?" Mello asked.

"There's no way to tell that," Near said. "If Kira's really dead, then definitely not. If this had to do with Kira, it wasn't careful about letting people know of its existence. I think it may be the same _exact_ thing as what's here. This is a quote from a witness to one of the invisible apple thievings: 'I was standing in line at the front and I happened to look back towards the fruits section. An apple was floating on its own. It started moving towards the front of the store. It looked as though something was taking bites out of it as it went towards the exit. It then floated right through the front door as though it were just a hologram.' That store closed for a few weeks after that and paranormal investigators came in."

"What did they say?" Matt asked.

"That they'd never heard of anything like that. The store security cameras only picked up the floating apple, there was nothing carrying it."

"Print it out," Mello said. "If you find anything else about it, print that out, too. We'll be planning.

* * *

Ryuk was just finishing his sixth apple of the night, boredly looking into L's room. He looked over at Kira, who was looking around just as boredly, although his expression was visibly mingled with annoyance. He looked at Ryuk, then rolled his eyes and continued looking around boredly.

"_You realize how bad it would have been if they had touched the notebook, right?_"

"_No_," Ryuk said. "_You've hid yourself from L, can't ya hide from them?_"

"_Two of those three actually go outside. Besides, I was thinking about blackmailing L with them._"

"_Eh?_"

"_You'll find out._"

"_I wonder what L's planning on doing with the notebook now,_" Ryuk said. He had hidden it between the mattress and box spring of his bed after Matt, Mello, and Near had left, but he obviously wouldn't keep it there forever. "_This really screwed up his perfect hiding place._"

"_I wish L would hurry up and try writing a name in it. He's definitely thought about it already. This is taking much longer than I expected it to._"

"_This is __**boring**__,_" Ryuk said. He flew over to the tree directly behind him and took an apple off of it. He then flew back. "_I think I'll go find those other three and see if they've found anything interesting yet._"

"_There's no way to stop you from doing that, is there?_"

"_Nope_."

Ryuk cackled as he flew straight through L's room. A couple rooms over was Matt and Mello's room, so he found it very quickly. He sat on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed in the room. Near was sitting at the computer. Matt and Mello were sitting on the floor, discussing plans.

"How many articles have you found?" Matt asked Near.

"About five so far."

Ryuk finished his apple down to the core. This was a little more interesting than keeping an eye on L. What articles was he talking about? He heard the sound of a printer working. He walked over to the printer once he spotted it and picked up a paper.

"Can't you wait until it finishes printing?" Near said, hearing paper shuffling behind him.

"What're you on ab– ah!" Mello pointed at the floating paper behind Near's head, then at the apple core. "Well… a-at least this proves that whatever it is has at least two hands."

Ryuk tossed the apple core at Mello.

"Oi!" he said loudly in frustration as he caught it before it could hit him in the head. "I don't know who the hell you think you _are_! And it's not funny!" he said to Matt, who was laughing.

Near turned his chair around and looked at the floating paper.

"I wonder if it would respond with an Ouija board," Matt said.

"That's doubtful," Near said, "and it would probably just give you nonsense answers if you tried it, then laugh at your reaction. It can obviously hold onto physical objects, and also understand us, or it wouldn't have been curious about the articles when you mentioned them. More importantly, I've been –"

"You mean more importantly than the fact that there's apples being chucked at me?" Mello said irritably, tossing the apple core in the trash can next to the door of the room.

"Yes," Near said. "I've been looking at folklore about different types of reapers, since your idea did make sense. One particular legend caught my eye. It refers to 'Death Gods,' which supposedly kill using a notebook of death."

"Hey!" Mello said, pointing at Near. "Death Note!"

"Yes," Near said, "exactly."

"_These kids are smart,_" Ryuk thought aloud. "_This should make Kira pretty mad._"

"It's also supposed that the apple is the main food source of their world, according to the legend. I think it's possible there could be two of those here, if you can believe that they exist."

"Considering how there are apples floating around and disappearing notebooks here, I'd believe it if you told me we had a fairy infestation," Mello said. "Oi!" he added loudly, seeing one of his chocolate bars float up out of a box behind Matt. "Hands off the chocolate!!"

Ryuk dropped the bar back into the box. He put the paper back by the printer and sat down on the bottom bunk of the bed again. The room was silent for a few minutes as they all looked around. Matt looked at Mello.

"I think you scared it off."

"It's probably still here," Mello said irritably. "Fucking invisible chocolate thief… that just _proves_ that the damn thing put my chocolate in L's room, you know?"

Ryuk watched as the three went back to work after they concluded he had left. All three of them were smart, but Near was obviously the smartest. He was the only one who had thought to check common mythology. Shinigami were mythological to humans, even though they were existent in reality. Due to his sense of reason, he wouldn't be a very fun person to drop a Death Note for. This Matt kid was obviously obsessed with videogames, so he would get boring. Mello, however, was easily angered and smart, which was a very lethal combination. His life span was also quite long. If this Kira bussiness ended before he died, then he would definitely be an interesting person to have a Death Note. However, that pondering should wait until after the end of the Kira situation. There was no telling how long that could go on for. Kira was absolutely determined to rule the world with an iron fist, and he probably wouldn't stop until he did.

* * *

_Will I ask a number of absolutely pointless questions at the end of this chapter?_

_Meh. I don't think I will._

_I've got too much work to do._

_All I will say is that I really appreciate the positive feedback I've gotten on this story. So thankya!!_


	6. Chapter 5: Demonic Fairy

_Alrighty. Before I go all disclaimer on ya'll's asses, I just want to say that you people are AWESOME!! I got nine reviews on the last chapter alone. EEP! That's a record for me! Yay. I'm really happy. Thank you all so so so so so so so so much._

_Now. -ahem- Presenting this here Disclaimy-thing: I don't own anything dealing with Death Note except for one graphic novel, but I don't own the rights to it or anything. I only own my ideas._

_Also, please see look at my one-shot here (**www dot fanfiction dot net/s/4402989/1/Deceptive underscore Winning** just replace the "dots" with actual ".s" and ect__) if you want to find out how L won in the first place._

* * *

Ryuk was about to severely screw Kira's plans over. His escapades were starting to turn into a major problem, especially with those kids running around. However, Kira couldn't kill them. Then they wouldn't be there for him to use against L if he killed them. He definitely had to do something about L and that Death Note _very_ soon. He couldn't wait forever for L to move. If he did, the kids would eventually discover the Death Note. That wasn't something Kira had calculated into his plans. Having worked with L, Kira had expected him a sort of a multimillionaire hermit, someone living in a mansion in the middle of nowhere when not working, not a millionaire that partially owned an orphanage with an overabundance of genius kids that were being trained to take over for him. If Kira had thought of that possibility, he might have reconsidered his plans before he really started planning. This wasn't the best situation in the world.

Kira looked into the window. Unable to think of any other way to go about things, he sighed and flew in through the window. Playing games wasn't going to cut it, not around the kids at The Wammy's House. That meant taking action was definitely his only option. He picked up a book from a desk in the room and hovered over to the bed – he had been using his wings as much as possible to get used to them and avoid any future mishaps. He then dropped the book on L's head. L jumped awake and looked to his other side, the side that Kira wasn't floating on. Kira rolled his eyes at the detective. No wonder he had never slept durring the Kira case. It seemed to make him a little slower to react.

"_Over __**here**__,_" Kira said impatiently.

L heard the voice, but didn't immediately comprehend it. He had last heard that voice begging for mercy, its owner using it to tell a Shinigami that he didn't want to die. Granted, the voice was a little more echoic than it had been when it was begging to be left alive, but the voice was still of a worm that had dug itself into a hole it had been unable to climb itself out of. Unfortunately, as L realized when he turned, this worm had sprouted wings and flow out of the hole. Its hair had also changed to a bright red color and formed into more solid looking, thicker pieces, much like Rem. Included in this new look was a white skin tone and black eyes with red irises and pupils. Death had done a number on Yagami Light – that was for sure. Unfortunately, it had given him wings and brought him back here, which was something L definitely could have lived without. However, his overall appearance was something very amusing to wake up to.

"So," L said, "I see that murderers turn into demonic fairies when they die. That's quite interesting."

Kira gave him a glare that would have made almost anyone recoil or flinch, and it would have made even some scream in terror. L, however, did nothing of the sort. He merely waited patiently for a reply. Kira was suddenly reminded of why he had hated L so much without even considering the fact that L had caused him to die.

"_Shinigami_," Kira said, irritated.

"So Yagami Light died and became a Shinigami?"

"_That's not my name anymore. It's Kira now._"

"Thank you, but I will still be calling you Light-kun."

Kira was seething now, and L was obviously aware, or he wouldn't have kept on. He managed to refrain from writing L's name in his Death Note right then and there, though the temptation was about to kill him. Kira crossed his arms and glared instead.

"_Don't you realize I could kill you now? I can see your real name, you know._"

"You won't kill me," L said certainly. "I'm one hundred percent sure of that for two reasons. One, you have to be here for a reason, and you will not kill me until you have told me that reason. Two, there is a twenty percent chance I may be having a horrible nightmare."

"_You're awake_."

"Then I am one hundred percent sure for one reason. But I am sure you won't kill me without telling me what reason you had to throw a notebook at me while I was sleeping."

"_You are right,_" Kira said. "_To put it lightly, I've come back from the dead to torture you because you basically killed me._"

"No. The Shinigami did. And I hope throwing things isn't the best you can do."

"_No, I can do much better_."

Kira laughed. L flinched slightly at the sound. It sounded even creepier with that echo. That was just insane. L regretted challenging him as he just had. He was sure that whatever this Shinigami-Yagami was planning couldn't be at all good, particularly not for L. He had obviously decided to call himself Kira as a Shinigami for a reason. So why was he coming to see L, of all people? That didn't make any sense.

"_See_," Kira said slowly, "_I've decided that you are going to be the new Kira._"

"What?"

"_And if you don't agree to it, I'll kill you._"

"_What_??"

"_You heard me. Kira is still justice. As it's against the rules for a Shinigami to target just a particular group of people – take for instance criminals – I had to get someone else to do my bidding. Since you're the reason I'm dead, I picked you. I'm basically a god now – a god of death, to say the least – which means that you're God's representative. You should feel honored._"

"Oh, but of _course_…"

"_Right_," Kira said, "_I've picked L Lawliet as my representative._"

"I still know you won't kill me unless I refuse to cooperate."

"_I expect you to refuse._"

"You would be right to expect that."

"_That was my original plan, you see. I have a new and improved plan now._"

"Do you?"

"_Yes_." Kira laughed maliciously again.

"Would you stop that? It's just weird."

"_Your new deal,_" Kira said, _"is that if you don't cooperate with me, then I will kill a few children here at this orphanage. Ah, that did it,_" Kira said, seeing the look of terror on L's face. "_I was thinking of three particular meddling brats who almost discovered something that they had no bussiness discovering. I'm sure you know Matt, Mello, and Near, don't you?_"

L stared in response, unable to formulate any words that made any sense to the situation in his mind. He finally settled on a sentence after about thirty seconds of blank thought.

"If you weren't already practically dead, I'd strangle you," he said. Kira laughed again. "Stop that!"

"_It's me who will be giving the orders, L_," Kira said. "_That is, unless you want to see those kids die, knowing the fault is at your hands._"

L glared at Kira as he stood up. "Fine," he said. He kneeled down next to the bed and lifted the mattress. He picked the Death Note up and dropped the mattress back down, then sat back on the bed, still glaring at Kira. "Is there any chance of trading you for a different Shinigami?"

"_Nope_."

It was horribly wrong. What had L done to deserve this? It appeared the gods truly were on Yagami Light's side. After all, they had practically made him into a god. He was an immortal being with killing powers and the power to give others the same power. What being in their right mind would grant him godly powers? It would only make him boast. That was terrible. He was a _God of Death_. The "death" part wasn't so bad. It was the "God" part that was. A gloating Shinigami was a lot easier to deal with than three children dying of heart attacks, however. The suspicions would immediately turn on Kira, and L would be forced back into the case. However, he was now going to have to act as Kira…. He opened the notebook.

"_Getting better_," Kira said smugly. "_Haven't you thought about writing any names before? Anyone that hasn't been brought to justice that should have been?_"

Saying no would be a lie. He had indeed thought about writing Amane Misa's name in the Death Note. To allow Kira to know this, however, would just fuel his bragging more. In response, he simply glared at Kira.

"If you want me to work for you," L said, "you'll have to tell me what to do."

"_You're being terribly reasonable, you know. I remember L as being stubborn_."

"If you're going to keep gloating, I won't be able to write a name…"

"_Oh, yes, I probably should give you a name to write,_" he said. "_Let's try writing… Amane Misa_."

L unintentionally let his surprise show for a moment. It didn't matter how quickly he changed his expression back to unwilling agreement. Kira still noticed. He laughed that annoying psycho-laugh again, that one that could make anyone one to rip out their eardrums and stab them with toothpicks. L cringed at the sound. Still, though, he couldn't help but wonder…. L didn't know much about Shinigami at all. This was completely strange, how Kira wanted to kill his old ally, the one person L had thought of killing. Granted, she was annoying, but what was the point in killing her if she had no memory? There didn't seem to be any point to it. At least, there wasn't one that L could see.

"_So you had thought of killing her, eh?_" Kira laughed again.

"I'm going to throw a shoe at you if you don't stop with that."

"_It won't do you any good._"

"Yes it would…"

"_I take it you're wondering why I want to kill Amane Misa, right?_"

"Anyone would…" L picked up a pen that was lying on his nightstand. He stared at the first blank page of the Death Note.

"_Thinking about going back on our deal? I can just kill those kids if you prefer_."

"No," L said quickly, "I'll do it…"

It was either a murderer or three children. One idiotic murderer or three nosy children. L shook his head as he wrote the name down. Resisting was useless, it would only get innocent people killed. He couldn't do anything else.

* * *

Miles away in Osaka, Japan, it was a little after eleven o' clock in the morning. Misa was on location at a movie set, complaining at the manager about kissing scenes in the movie, when she suddenly clutched her chest in pain. She fell to the ground. When the ambulance and police arrived, she was pronounced dead, the most likely cause being a heart attack. The first suspicion, as it had been only days ago that Kira's death had been announced, was that Kira had returned.

Amane Misa was dead. Somehow, she didn't feel particularly dead, just very afraid at the number of Shinigami in the strange place she had just fallen from the sky to land at. She shuddered slightly as she sat there, but no Shinigami bothered looking over from their gambling and apple-eating. Misa immediately heard a familiar voice next to her.

"_Amane Misa_," said the voice, "_welcome to the Realm of Shinigami; Mu_."

"Rem!" Misa said, looking up. "Misa forgot about Rem." She stood up, brushing her gothic Lolita skirt off. "What happened?"

"_You died._"

"I _what?!_" she shrieked. This made some of the Shinigami glance over, laugh at the newcomer, and go back to their regular activities. "How… what happened?"

"_You were killed. By a new Kira._"

"A new Kira…?"

"_Yagami Light also died, but death is different for those who have owned and written in a Death Note in their life span. He is in the human realm right now. It is against the rules for Shinigami to kill any particular group – such as criminals – so he has found someone else to do his bidding for him._"

"Light's a Shinigami??" Misa said. "Is Misa going to be a Shinigami, too??"

"_Yes._"

She jumped up to her feet excitedly. "Do I get to help Light??"

"_If you would like to, yes._"

"Yay!" she said, clapping her hands. "How do I become a Shinigami?"

"_The Shinigami King, or King of Death as he prefers to be called when you address him directly, will tell you anything you need to know. I have always been a Shinigami, so I do not know how human entities become Shinigami."_

"Well…" Misa said slowly, "does Misa get wings, too?"

"_All Shinigami have wings._"

"Can they be fiery??"

"_I do not know_."

"Oh. Misa will have to ask the King of Death."

Misa followed Rem closely, still rather spooked about the many Shinigami that were there. Some of them actually did look similar to depictions of the grim reaper, which was awfully strange. So she could become a Shinigami too, now, and continue to help Light for the rest of eternity. She was very happy about this.

* * *

"There," L said, setting the notebook and pen down. "Happy?"

"_For now_," Kira said. "_But you will be writing more names. Preferably Japanese criminals, we can't have them thinking Kira is centered in Britain. Then they might find you and I'd have to find a new puppet._"

"I'm not your puppet."

"_Yes you are. If you say any different, then I'll just kill one of the kids. You have to agree with everything I say now_."

L grumbled something under his breath that was most likely an unpleasant comment directed at Kira as he tossed the notebook and pen on the floor and lay back down. Kira looked around the room, wondering where in the world Ryuk had gone off to. He was definitely either getting himself or Kira into even more trouble, that was certain at this point. Ryuk was good at getting others into trouble. As Shinigami didn't need sleep, Kira was still adjusting to finding things to do in the middle of the night. He resorted to taking out his own Death Note, flipping through it to a blank page, and writing a few more names in. But what names to write…? He did have to leave the orphanage occasionally to scout out new victims. What better time to do that than in the dead of night? Kira started to fly up through the ceiling.

He was tackled before this action could be completed, as well as engulfed in a sea of flames that didn't seem to burn.

He let out a yell of surprise, causing L to wake back up to a rather amusing sight of the gothic fairy attempting to fight off something invisible. All that was missing was a magic wand with a sparkling star at the end. That would have been more amusing yet.

"_Light!!_" Misa's voice echoed in a yell. Kira involuntarily shuddered.

"_It's Kira now_."

"Who are you talking to?"

"_Let him see you_," Kira instructed Misa.

"_L??_" she said, tilting her head.

"_Yes._"

"_Okay…_"

Misa took a Death Note from the bag hanging over her shoulder and tore a piece off of it. She poked L in the arm with it.

"Oh. That's who."

Misa had changed at least a little more than Light. Her hair was now made of fire, but still up in their trademark pigtails. She also had rather fiery wings. As she put them back down to stand normally on the floor, the fire encircled her neck instead. Her eyes had red irises, but still normal whites and black pupils. She was easily recognizable just by her trademark gothic outfit. Misa pursed her lips in a rather discontented manner.

"_Why would you come back from the dead to come see __**him**__?_" she asked Light.

"_He's the new Kira._"

"_Ehh? Ryuzaki? Wait, isn't __**he**__ supposed to be dead?? What's going on!?_"

"_You know_," Kira said, looking at L, "_I never got a full explanation on that, either. How did you manage to live after writing your own name in a Death Note_?"

"Because God likes me better than you." He lay back down. "Could you please go and be loud somewhere else?"

There was the sound of a crunching noise by the door. Misa turned around.

"_Ryuk, too?_"

"_Oh_," Ryuk said, looking at Light. He took a bite of apple. "_This is what you were planning_."

L put a pillow over his head to drown out the noise. However, considering Misa's voice could have cut through a bomb shelter, that was a hard thing to do. He managed to get to sleep after a while. He was happy to wake up Shinigami-less at about seven the next morning. Maybe it had just been a bad dream? He looked at the floor to see the Death Note lying there. He looked at it for a moment, then opened it. Unless he had been writing names in his sleep, it hadn't been a dream at all. With a sigh, he put the note back between the mattress and box spring of the bed and the pen back on the dresser. Figuring on getting another good day out of the clothes he had worn yesterday, he headed downstairs without bothering to change. It was unfortunate that he was help up by a group of three teenagers carrying stacks of papers. Of course, there was also an apple floating behind them.

_As if last night wasn't bad enough…_ he thought to himself, looking at Matt, Mello, Near, and the currently invisible Ryuk. _I swear to __**God**__ if they say the word Shinigami…_

* * *

_Cameossss from: Rem. Yay! __Rem isn't dead in my story, no. Shinigami aren't supposed to die because Shinigami rock. Except Kira, the stupid fairy... I curse myself for creating him..._

_Rem's explained elsewhere (**www dot fanfiction dot net/s/4402989/1/Deceptive underscore Winning**)._

_And so Kira has made his move, tired of waiting in the shadows to act._

_What will the sudden death of Amane Misa do to the public state of being?_

_Other than make them shout for joy, I mean…_

_I know I'd be shouting for joy._

_But why did Kira want her back?_

_You'll find out soon. It's all part of his plan. Er. My plan. Because I control this entire thing with my crazy-twisted split-personalitied mind and hyperness due to overconsumption of caffeine and chocolate. WOO!_

_But aaaanywho. My next update should be on __**Sketch**__. So, for those who read it/are interested in reading it, keep an eye on it._

_Also, please see look at my one-shot here (**www dot fanfiction dot net/s/4402989/1/Deceptive underscore Winning**__) if you want to find out how L won in the first place. I know I put that in the beginning, too, but it's sitting there with one review and it's makin me sad. But thanks muchomuchomucho to the person who reviewed!!_


	7. Chapter 6: The Alphabet of the Kira Case

_EEEE! I have chocolate. I'm happy :D_

_Anywhozles._

_Disclaimer: See previous chapter._

* * *

Rather than go back down to breakfast that morning, L was ushered back into his room by the three teenagers and the floating apple hanging around behind them. L sat down on his bed and looked at the three. They looked angry. Matt and Near didn't scare him in the least, nor did the Shinigami behind them. Mello did. Despite the fact that Mello was ten years younger than him and looked like a transvestite most of the time, he could be extremely menacing to anyone. There were occasions when Roger had spoken to L and Watari about having Mello transferred somewhere else just because of that. At that moment, L was almost regretting disagreeing with Roger. Mello handed him a stack of papers.

"These are reports," Mello said. "News reports from last year in Japan. Eyewitness accounts and everything."

"A-about what?"

"Read."

L looked at the three for a moment. Deciding he didn't much feel like being skinned and decapitated that early in the morning, he looked down at the papers and read the title of one of them: _Invisible Apple Thief Closes Numerous Japanese Convenient Stores in Kanto_. So they had been doing research the previous night. That was a terrible, terrible thing. He flipped through the following pages and read through random eyewitness accounts of different events, talking of floating apples eating themselves on the way out of the store. Occasionally, the invisible perpetrator had laid down money on the counter for the apples, but not often. L looked up at the apple still floating behind Matt, Mello, and Near. If he could have heard the entity holding the apple, he was sure he would have heard an all too familiar malevolent cackle.

"So?" Mello said. "Any ideas?"

"No."

Mello shook his head. "You're not dumb. If you were dumb, then they would have sent _me_ on the Kira case, not you."

"Actually, they'd have –"

"Shut up, Matt," Mello mumbled. "Do you not _see_ a floating apple behind my head??"

"Yes."

"Do you not _see_ a connection there?"

"Anyone would. All I am saying is that I'm not sure what it could mean."

"These reports," Near said, looking at another stack of papers he was holding, "were from last year at around the time of the Kira case. There were no, as it says here, 'Apple Apparitions,' until after the first murder took place. We think the person that you killed that was known as 'Kira' may have been controlled by this apple-eating thing to do what it did."

"Really?" L said, watching an apple core dangling over Mello's head by the stem. "I was more under the impression that it was here to relieve itself of boredom."

Mello crossed his arms. "This really isn't funny. Matt," he said. "Papers."

L had another stack of papers thrust at him. His heart stopped beating for a moment as he saw two words on the top sheet: "Death God." That meant…

"If you read," Mello said, "it says that these 'Death Gods' live in another world. See that?"

"Yes…" L said slowly.

"Well, do you see how it says they _kill??_"

L read the article.

_There are many legends of these so called "Death Gods." The Grim Reaper is, of course, the most well known legend, the face of Death itself. However, the seemingly most accurate of these legends are known most commonly as Shinigami._ L flinched as he looked at the word, but continued on. _These creatures are said to live in another world and live by killing humans. Some accounts say that they kill with notebooks._

"Notebooks?" L said aloud, doing his best to sound puzzled.

"Yes," Near said. "_Notebooks_."

"And that's not _all_."

Matt swiped the stack of papers Near was holding and commenced flipping through them. He found what he was looking for after a moment and pulled out the article. He handed it to L.

"That Misa-person died. Last night. We did a search on her to see if there was anything about her confinement as the second Kira, and we found out she had died two hours before we typed in her name."

"Not only that, but we do believe we discovered the name of someone on your old investigation team," Mello said. "Near speaks Japanese, so we might contact him soon and pull the team back together to find out just how much they know about the Kira case."

"Who?" L asked.

"Taro Matsui. Obviously not his real name, or he'd be dead, since he knew who the Kira in the group called 'Yotsuba' was. We could probably find his real name though, right?" Matt said.

"Probably," Near agreed. "I'd imagine he was and still is on the Japanese police force."

"What makes you think he would have been working with me?"

"Uhh…" Mello said. "Near figured that part out."

"The period of Misa's confinement was easily recognizable in looking at her career," Near said, twirling a loch of white hair with his finger as he spoke. "It was said that she was in rehab, but what was strange was that after that period, she had a new manager, one that she was apparently not permitted to go anywhere without. That manager was Taro Matsui. Reportedly, he died in a drunken accident when falling out of the window of a flat, but he later appeared on a Japanese television station, stating that he knew who Kira was, and that he was a member of the Yotsuba Corporation."

"Yeah," Mello agreed. "So that means he's still alive, at least, and that… he… yeah. But that also means that we could use Misa Amane's modeling agency to find a way to get a hold of him, since he's still alive and everything."

_Dammit…_ L thought, chewing on his thumbnail. _Taro Matsui was Matsuda-san. If they get in contact with him…. He definitely wasn't the smartest person in the world, to put it lightly. They probably could contact him more easily than they could any other member of the old investigation team._

"On top of all of this," Near said, "there are rumors that L died after the Kira case, ones that the police refuse to comment on. That means that L most likely tricked the investigation team into believing that he was dead before returning here. Is that so?"

L looked at the three of them. They were on the verge of figuring out the entire Kira case. Genius kids could really be a nuisance. If they figured out any more… or if they found the Death Note… they might suspect he had been Kira in the first place. L glared at the floating apple core for a moment.

* * *

Matsuda had just gotten into work the next morning at seven, as had almost everyone else. He was reading a newspaper as he walked to the meeting room. Even though the Kira case was over, the paperwork it had left the team with was simply endless. As he glanced over the obituaries, he noticed something strange. Something _very_ strange. The meeting room was greeted by a very frantic officer as he rushed inside, nearly tripping over his own feet as he did so. He put the paper in front of Yagami, pointing at a particular spot in the obituaries. He was obviously unable to speak. Yagami took the paper and looked.

"Amane Misa…" he read aloud. "Died of a heart attack at a movie filming. That means…"

"Kira!" Matsuda managed to blurt out, looking from Yagami to Aizawa to Mogi madly. He hit his hand on the desk. "There's another Kira!"

"It's suspicious that she would die of a heart attack at such a young age, definitely," Yagami agreed.

"That means L died for nothing?" Aizawa said slowly. "That idiot…"

(_**AN**__: The investigation team thinks L is dead. If you want to know why, go to my profile, to my stories, and read my one-shot __**Deceptive Winning**__, it explains everything surrounding the circumstances that cause Kira to "lose" before this story would have taken place. I'm not saying that just to advertise it, I'm only pointing it out so there is no confusion when references such as these are made._)

"L died to prove his own suspicions, which was a foolish move, yes, considering the Death Note had changed hands before," Yagami said. "The question is, how far will this Kira go?"

"That damn reaper probably did this because he was 'bored' again," Aizawa said, shaking his head. "We all heard what he said when L said he was going to burn the notes. The comment about his decision being boring. He probably just got another notebook and dropped it somewhere else for someone to pick up!"

"So it seems," Yagami said with a sigh.

"This is going to mean more paperwork, isn't it?" Matsuda said, having managed to remember how to speak. "Hey," he added thoughtfully, "what if Ryuzaki faked his death somehow?"

"He's dead now, you can call him L," Aizawa said. "I don't think he would have faked his death. He was willing to let himself be killed in order to solve that case, so he's probably dead."

"Yeah…" Matsuda agreed, sounding disappointed. "That means if it starts again…"

"We're on our own," Yagami finished. "Kitamura will obviously put us on the case again if it happens as it did before, as we have worked with L and thus have had firsthand experience with the way he thinks."

"Anyone who knows L knows it's impossible to think like him," Aizawa said, strumming his fingers on the desk impatiently. "This is bad. I'm not sure I can take much more of this Kira madness, I'll go insane."

"Then you can be the new L," Matsuda said. "He wasn't really very sane."

"Matsuda?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"I think you'd fit the part fine," Matsuda said reasonably. "L thought I was an idiot, too."

"Stop joking! If this is Kira again, this _isn't_ something to be laughing about!"

"Sorry…"

"We aren't even sure if it will be approved for us to work on this case again yet," Yagami said, distracting everyone's attention from the argument of who was going to get to be L. "I'm sure we all remember when the NPA offered us the option of continuing on the Kira case and resigning from our jobs or coming back to the police force and ignoring the case. Now that it's happening again, with all three known 'Kiras' and L now dead, there is no telling what the reaction will be."

"Yeah…" Matsuda agreed, looking down at the newspaper, "but they still can't exactly ignore it if it keeps happening, right?"

"I doubt they will," Yagami said, "but it is better to bring up the possibility that Kira is back before planning an investigation of any sort."

"Chief's right," Aizawa said. "If we start planning to take action now and the investigation isn't approved beforehand, then we'd already be caught in the middle of an investigation and have to decide whether or not to quit the force again."

After hours of work, the team was finally allowed to leave at around 10:30 that night. The old investigation team was quietly discussing the possible new case as they left, but they were interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. They all looked back at Matsuda as he was taking a phone out of his pocket. He looked a little confused by this.

"This was the phone Ryuzaki gave me for when I had to act as Misa's manager…" he said slowly. "The number's untraceable…."

"That's weird…" Aizawa said. "Why'd you keep the phone?"

"Who'd throw out a free phone?" he asked, flipping it open. "Hello?"

At the other end of the line, L listened helplessly from his bed as Near spoke into his electronic voice scrambler. Matt and Mello sat on the floor on either side of him, listening as the voice broadcasted out into the room from a set of speakers. There was no use trying to stop them. They would have figured everything out without speaking to Matsuda, anyway, so he'd just listen to their call.

"What'd he say?" Mello whispered.

Near held up his index finger, indicating for Mello to wait a moment before asking.

"_Is this Taro Matsui?_"

There was a pause. At Matsuda's end of the conversation, he switched his phone to the speaker phone setting so the rest of the team could hear.

"Whoever it is, is using L's old voice distortion," he said quietly. "Yes," he said into the phone.

"_This is N._"

"… is this a joke?"

"_No. I am what you could call one of L's successors. If you can speak in English, please do so to the best of your abilities. Can you?_"

"Yes."

"_Good. Listen carefully. If anyone is listening to this conversation, please make sure they can't hear it. It sounds as though you have your phone set to speaker setting. Please turn this setting off._"

"Sorry…" he said quietly to Yagami, Aizawa, and Mogi, as he switched his phone back to normal.

"_Thank you. I am going to ask that you cooperate with me fully. First, I will need your real name_."

"Wh– why do you think it isn't my real name?"

"_Because L wasn't dumb enough to let the investigation team he was working with use their real names with Kira around._"

There was another pause on that end of the line. Mello poked Near in the arm to get his attention.

"It doesn't seem like this is going to get us anywhere," Mello said. "I don't think this guy's very smart at all."

"He could just be playing dumb," Matt said quietly. "Right?"

"Right," Near agreed quietly. "We just need to keep questioning him."

L heard a laugh next to him. He glared over at the Shinigami floating there with absolute distain. Having him chained to him while he was still alive had been more than enough. Considering it was impossible to kick a Shinigami in the face, it made him even harder to live with than before.

"_That idiot doesn't need to act dumb_," Kira said. "_Actually, it's probably impossible for __**anyone**__ to act that dumb without actually being an idiot._"

"How do I know you're not Kira?" Matsuda's voice replied finally through the speakers.

"Huh," Near said. "You're smarter than I thought you'd be."

"Does that mean you _are –_?"

"No, I'm not Kira," Near said. "It's as I told you. I am one of L's successors. If you won't tell me your real name, then at least tell me as much as you know about the Kira case."

"I can't," Matsuda said. "It's late here, but I'm still in public, and I probably shouldn't –"

"Understood. Then simply answer my questions with a yes or a no."

"Okay."

"Were you a part of the investigation team that worked with L on the Kira case?"

"Yes."

"Is L dead?"

"Yes."

Mello glared back at L.

"Did Kira kill him?"

"Sort of."

"I will ask you to elaborate at a later time. Was Kira a man called Higuchi?"

"Yes."

"Was Kira also a younger man called Light Yagami?"

"Yes…"

"And the main suspect for the second Kira was Misa Amane?"

"Yes. Do you already know all of this?"

"No. I need to gain confirmation before I know anything."

"Oh."

"Are Higuchi, Light Yagami, and Amane all dead?"

"Yes."

"Did you ever discover how Kira killed?"

"Yes…"

"Did it involve a notebook?"

There was a pause on the other line. L was praying Matsuda would have the sense to lie to someone he couldn't even be sure was a part of the Kira investigation. Granted, Matsuda didn't have much sense, but there was hope that maybe he had at least a _little _sense, wasn't there? After all, if he said yes… L was doomed. Doomed to have his room destroyed by three teenagers on the verge of figuring out what Death Notes and Shinigami had to do with the Kira case.

"I… don't think it did, no."

"Useless," Mello said. "Told ya."

"Are you sure of this?"

"I'm not sure at all, no, but I don't _think_ it did."

_Thank you God…_ L thought. _If he'd said yes, this damned fairy hovering over here_– At this thought, L moved over on his bed away from Kira, glaring at him a bit. –_could have killed those three for figuring out too much. It's good to know he has at least a little bit of sense._

"Fine, then," Near said. "I will call again to have you elaborate on the answers to a few questions I asked you."

"O-okay."

"Goodbye."

Near disconnected the phone call. The three of them turned to look at L all at once. Naturally, Mello was the first to speak.

"So," Mello said, sounding unnaturally calm, particularly for _him_, "you died and never even bothered to tell us?"

"I have a book on how to survive a zombie attack," Matt said to Mello. "If he's a zombie, then –"

"I'm not a zombie," L said impatiently.

"I believe we could have established that, considering zombies don't exist," Near said. "Now–"

"You don't know that," Matt said. "See, I bet you thought Death Gods didn't exist either, not until one showed up."

"Fine, they _may_ exist," Near said, mostly just to shut Matt up. "However. L, why does a member of the Kira investigation team think you are dead?"

"I had to trick them to solve the Kira case, or they never would have went along with my plan," L said. "I've never told you three this much about any cases in the past, and I'm not going to this time. You can badger me about it as much as you like, but I'm not going to tell you anything else."

"I think he's hiding something from us on purpose," Mello said. "Are you?"

"I _obviously_ am," L said. "Your lives are just as in danger as anyone else's who find out too much about Kira, so I suggest you stop attempting to."

"Is that a threat? Because I swear, I'll –" Mello started, sounding offended.

"I'm not Kira," L said impatiently, "so it isn't a threat. It's a warning."

"_You are Kira at the moment_," Kira reminded him, then laughed.

Mello stood up. L thought for a moment that he was about to get attacked, but Mello turned and walked out the door, looking furious. The apple core followed him, and so did Near and Matt. L walked over to the door and shut it after them, then locked it. He glared at Kira as he did so.

"_Eye problem?_"

"No," L said, walking back over to his bed. "Shinigami infestation problem." He sat down.

"_Don't sit down yet, you have work to do._"

"Wha – right now?"

"_Yeah. You can't get behind on my work._"

L stood up and lifted up the mattress on his bed, then grabbed the notebook. He sat back on the bed and took his pen from his bedside table.

"_I have a list of twenty-four names of criminals in Japan off the top of my head,_" Kira said. "_One for every hour of the day. That is how our system is going to work._"

"Just give me the names."

"_First one's–_"

"Wait a second," L said, thinking. "What did you do with Amane?"

"You'll find out eventually."

* * *

"N? What in the _hell_?"

Matsuda finished explaining the phone call to Kitamura before he could leave the office. Aizawa, Yagami, and Mogi were also in Kitamura's office as witnesses of the phone call. Kitamura appeared to be having trouble believing what Matsuda was telling him. Most people _did_ tend to have a problem believing what Matsuda told them. Whether it was serious or not, it always came out sounding ridiculous when he explained it somehow.

"Sir," Yagami said, moving in front of Matsuda, "we all heard enough of the conversation to know that this is true. We do not know who this 'N' person truly is, but he claims to be L's successor. Or, as he put it, one of L's successors. Also, yesterday, Amane Misa died of a heart attack. She was a main suspect in the Kira case, suspected by L as being the second Kira. Her obituary was in the papers this morning."

Kitamura looked at the four of them, then sat back down in his chair, strumming his fingers on his desk.

"I suppose we may need to reopen the investigation," he said slowly. "With L gone, however… this could be a problem."

"Wait a minute," Matsuda said, the sound of epiphany in his voice. "If N really is L's successor, that would mean that he would have to have some connection with Watari, right? And Watari's not dead. N said he was going to contact me again, so we could ask him to send Watari here to confirm N's identity."

"That," Kitamura said slowly, "seems like the best idea. Three Kiras have already died. This is starting to get out of hand. Hopefully, if N is indeed L's successor, he will be able to solve the case more efficiently than L did. Not to say L wasn't a genius. I'm only saying perhaps N will be able to solve the case without dying.

"Then it is settled, I think?" Kitamura continued. They all nodded in agreement. "Matsuda-san, you will instruct N to send Watari to us to confirm that N is a successor of L when N calls you back."

"Yes sir," he said.

"You will then inform Yagami-san of the call and N's response, who will then inform me as well. Now. All six of us are off duty. So please get out of my office so I can go home."

"Yes, sir."

They left from the office and headed back towards the exit off the building. Matsuda looked at the other three of them.

"This case is starting to remind me of the English alphabet," he said slowly as they walked out the front door.

"Idiot…" Aizawa grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Matsuda started to say something, but he felt someone bump into him. He looked behind him and realized he was the last one exiting the door. Probably just his imagination. It had been a long day, after all. Nonetheless, it had been a little strange that air had just walked into him.

Misa bit the end of her fingernail in worry as she watched the team. Matsuda didn't seem to notice she had just flown into him by accident. That was lucky. She wondered if Light – no, _Kira_ now, she _had_ to remember that – had the same problems with his wings when he first became a Shinigami. He had sent her to follow them without them finding her out, so she would have to be careful. They weren't aloud to have a clue as to whether or not she was there, and she had to report back to him when they started getting suspicious. Now would probably be a good time to, considering they had noticed her death in the papers and someone had just contacted Matsuda claiming to be L's successor….

* * *

_Blargharific. That's the new word of the day._

_Anywhozles, onto the ohsopointless questions._

_Will Near, Matt, and Mello be safe from Kira's wrath?_

_Will they find out anything else about Shinigami?_

_Will L attempt to roundhouse kick or drop-kick Kira in the face despite the fact that he's dead?_

_Will Matsuda figure out why air just walked into him for no particular reason?_

_Will Misa master her new fiery wings without setting a building or anyone's hair aflame?_

_You'll find out soon. Maybe. I dunno. You'll just have to read and find out if you're gonna find out._

_Thanksies for the many reviews! Twenty-four so far!! And over one thousand reviews, and 18 alerts and favorites. Thanks, everyone!_

_**Update!!**_

_**To clear up some minor confooshuns:**_

_**I did base how L survived strongly on the movies, yes. However, he died in the movies, so I had to change a few things.**_

_**Also, I included bits of information from the manga in the background, too, and I did this for a reason.**_

_**Takada and Mikami will be in this story in chapters farfar in the future, so I couldn't base it entirely on the movies, seeing as how Takada both died and basically took Higuchi's place in the movies, as Sabext said in his comment just a moment ago. **_

_**In the movies, Yotsuba was nonexistent, and it had to exist in order for my story to work, so that's part of the manga I used.**_

_**I hope that clears everything up!**_


	8. Chapter 7: Saguaro Disaster

_Disclaimomabobber: Please see last chapter I wasn't too lazy to write it on._

* * *

"_Lig– I mean, Kira!_"

Kira looked over at a certain flame-headed Shinigami that had just seen it fit to sneak up behind him as he hovered over a street in Winchester, England not far from Wammy's House. It was the middle of the night, and he had been waiting for three hours for a stats report on the old investigation team. He had been prepared to head back to the orphanage after two and a half hours, but seeing as he was nice, he had decided to wait another half hour to see if Misa would show. She finally had.

"_Anything interesting yet?_"

"_They noticed Misa's death in the papers this morning in Japan_," she said. Kira nearly flinched at her third-person reference of herself – he had forgotten just how annoying that could get. "_They suspect that Kira's back, they still think L's dead, and who's N?_"

"_A kid at the orphanage. One of L's successors. I know he contacted Matsuda, I was there, so was L and his two other successors. Their names are Matt, Mello, and Near. Near is 'N.'_"

"_Well, they talked to the… ummm… the guy that's up above Yagami-san in the police department in Japan, and they told him about the phone call. Matsuda-san suggested that they ask N for confirmation from Watari that N is L's successor._"

Kira laughed. "_That foils their plans, then. I think Near is only about eleven or twelve, and Watari definitely had no idea what he was doing. L did, but since they still think L's dead and I've got Ryuk watching him right now, they won't find out he's alive yet._"

"_Are you going to let them?_"

"_Eventually. Just not yet. When they are allowed to know, L will continue working with them to hunt for Kira like he did before, and all of the clues will lead straight back to him._"

"_Kira,_" Misa said. "_Misa is confused. Ryu– I mean, L is going to become a Shinigami when he dies, too, now. Wouldn't that be bad?_"

"_L is against killing_," Kira said. "_If I'm right, he'd die before he had to kill another human to survive. So, as a Shinigami, he wouldn't last for a long time at all. He was going to give up his own life if it meant not having to use that Death Note to act as my representative, so I pulled his successors into the picture._"

"_Eh?_"

"_I told him I'd kill them if he didn't do as I told him to._"

"_The little kids?? But Li– I mean, Kira, they didn't do anything!_"

"_I won't kill them unless L doesn't do as I tell him to. I can't threaten to kill him to get him to do what I want, so I have to threaten to kill those he cares about. Those kids look up to L, and he knows it, and he would rather a number of criminals die than his friends._"

It seemed being a Shinigami had changed Light – or Kira, as he was now named – even more. Misa still loved him, but now he was using blackmail like _this_ to get what he wanted…. He had used blackmail in the past before, but threatening to kill kids? _Orphaned_ kids, for that matter. It wasn't exactly like Li– Kira, rather, could kill her any more. She still loved him, though, so she would never go against him. She _couldn't_… could she?

"_Misa_," he said, "_I'm not going to kill them. I only said it to L to get him to work for me. Now, you have work to do in Japan, don't you?_"

"_Yeah,_" she said. "_I'll report back to you in a week like you said!_"

Kira watched her warp back to the Shinigami world. Going back there made it easier to get to other, far away places. Granted, Shinigami didn't actually get tired, but warping through the Shinigami world made things a lot easier. He could agree with that. Now, he just had to fly back to that orphanage. There was no way to trust Ryuk fully.

* * *

"First question."

L glanced over at the visible Shinigami sitting on his bed as he paced back and forth on the floor, still confused about the sudden Shinigami infestation of The Wammy's House. L had managed to talk the floating apple next to him into making itself visible to him, thus confirming that Ryuk had tagged along with Kira to The Wammy's House.

"Why _are_ you here?"

"_I dunno_," Ryuk said. He took a bite of the apple in his hand. "_Seemed like it would be interesting._"

"Are you on Kira's side?"

"_Nope_."

"So you _are_ just here for entertainment?"

"_And apples. This place has more apple trees than I've ever seen in one place._"

"Yeah," L said impatiently. "Good. Really good. Can Matt, Mello, or Near see you yet?"

"_Nope_."

"Are you going to let them?"

"_I don't know. Maybe._"

"Bad…" L said under his breath, stopping and leaning against his dresser as he chewed on his thumbnail. "Very _bad_… and not funny," he added to the chuckling Shinigami. "Are you going to tell Kira I can see you?"

"_Nah, not yet_," Ryuk said. "_He'll keep using me as a lookout that way, and I still get to throw things at you._"

"That's just… never mind, Kira could show back up at any moment. Do you know what he's doing with Misa?"

"_Yep_."

"What, then?"

"_I thought you were supposed to be smart. Can't you figure it out?_"

"You're not going to help me at all, are you?"

"_That wouldn't be any fun._"

"You're helping the three down the hall."

"_That __**is**__ fun. That's the main difference with that._"

"Alright. No arguing. Is there any other reason you're following them around?"

"_Eh. I might drop a Death Note for one of them after I get bored with what Kira's doing. Probably not the albino, he'd just forfeit it. The goggle kid would probably use it to try to kill videogame characters. The chocolate obsessed one could be amusing for a while, though._"

"The entire world'll be doomed if he gets a Death Note…" L said under his breath, shaking his head.

"_Ya think so?_" Ryuk said, tilting his head. "_Then yeah, I'll probably drop a Death Note for him soon._"

L sighed. "You seem smart enough," he said. "What would happen to the Shinigami world if the human world was destroyed?"

"_Eh? We'd all die, too. You mean that kid would literally destroy the world?_"

"Maybe not to the fullest extent, but – I hear wings, pretend I can't see you."

L moved back over to his bed as Ryuk recommenced floating a couple feet off the floor next to it. L lay down as Kira flew down in through the roof. He seemed to enjoy making dramatic entrances now that he had wings and the ability to maneuver through solid objects. He looked at the apple in Ryuk's hand, at L, and then indicated for Ryuk to leave by pointing up.

"_See ya_," Ryuk said, flying up through the ceiling. Kira watched him, and then looked back at L.

"_Did you finish with the list I gave you?_"

"Yes," L said, in a grudging tone.

"_Good._"

"What were you doing?"

"_You don't get to ask me questions._"

"Whatever…" L said tonelessly, giving up. "Do I get to sleep now? I was really starting to enjoy the fact that I was going to get to sleep again because Kira was dead."

Kira glared at him. Mention of his death seemed to be the only thing that got on his nerves, so L pulled that card on him as often as possible.

* * *

Misa spent her next few days doing as she was told, following the investigation team as her dearly beloved had asked her to. She also spent it wondering if he wasn't going a little _too_ insane about this. He had killed the man who had murdered her parents, and she was grateful to him for that and everything, and she still loved him, but there were a few more things to be taken into account now.

One, he was going a little too far in threatening those poor kids. Considering he had only ever killed those before who had committed heinous crimes or those who hindered his goal for peace within the world, threatening to kill little kids who couldn't possibly beat him just for the sake of gaining a representative was absolutely ridiculous. That Near kid was a little bit odd, though. He had managed to trick L into letting him use his old voice altering technology that he used for broadcasts.

Another thing was that Misa was a _Shinigami_ now. She wasn't entirely sure that she was acting like a Shinigami was supposed to act. Should she be more like Rem and show a certain care to those around her she feels are doing the right thing, or should she be more like Ryuk and just not care about it all? Light… _Kira_ was still acting like he had as a human, but Misa was sure he wasn't supposed to. There was a rule in the Shinigami world against organized killings of any sort, be it genocide of one race or the murder of only murderers. It didn't matter. Everyone was equal in death, and Shinigami were supposed to understand that, but Kira didn't seem to.

It was all just too confusing…. Now the investigation team had started back on the Kira case, and they thought Kira was still in Japan because it had just been Japanese criminals dying. They were going to hit a dead end if they kept thinking like that. They knew Shinigami existed now, but they probably assumed that a Shinigami wouldn't be responsible for such a thing. If Misa showed them what had happened to her in death, then… but _no_, Kira had told her not to. She _was_ a Shinigami, but… confusing, yes. That's what it was. If she showed one person she existed, it wouldn't be so bad. It would have to be someone that no one else would believe, definitely. Someone who would just be deemed as an "idiot" if he ran into the investigation room telling them that he had seen a Shinigami. Someone _daft_, for lack of a kinder way to put it. There was only one person on the investigation team who fit that description.

And his phone rang the second she came to that conclusion.

* * *

"_Hey, whatcha doin'?_"

L looked back at Ryuk from his laptop.

"You'll see. How long'll Kira be gone?"

"_He's off on one of his boredom induced killing rampages, and considering he was in a pretty good mood, it could be all day. You might see a few really weird deaths in the news soon._"

"Yeah. Good."

The telephone ringing issuing from L's computer speakers ended abruptly and was replaced with a very frantic sounding voice.

"N?" Matsuda replied.

"Close," L said. "Back up a couple letters."

"Wha… but… L's dead, what're you talking about??"

"You were all tricked. Involved an extra fake Death Note and a lot of acting. This is important. Kira is back. I will speak with Watari and have him meet with the investigation team as soon as possible. Meaning yourself, Aizawa-san, Yagami-san, and Mogi-san."

There was a silence on the other end of the line that gave off some serious confusion vibes. He was calling Matsuda, so this was to be expected. Matsuda generally gave off an ambience of confusion at all times. L waited for a reply for about thirty seconds before finally getting one.

"But… L's dead…"

"Watari will explain everything once he is there."

"Do you know who N is?"

"Yes. He is indeed one of my successors, as are two different M's. The team probably won't believe you. If they do, then there is only a five percent chance that they will believe you were really speaking to L."

"Two M's? What's that mean??"

"I have three successors. N is first in line, M and M are second and third."

"Now I'm confused…"

"You're always confused…" L grumbled. "Just tell the team that N is nothing to be worried about and that Watari will be meeting with you all soon under L's instruction. I may also be meeting with you all again in the near future. If it is required of me for the sake of solving the Kira case, I may also be forced to bring my successors. I will be calling to alert you of when Watari will meet with you. It should be as soon as within the next week. It should be ten o' clock in the morning in Japan right now. I assume you are at the station?"

"Yes…"

"Then hurry and alert any members of the investigation team that are there."

"Okay."

L cut the conversation. He quickly shut off his lap top and looked around suspiciously. The only Shinigami there was an apple obsessed one rather than a power hungry or past pop star one. Come to think, Misa had been gone for quite a while now. That was slightly puzzling. It was obvious that Kira had instructed her to fly off somewhere, but where?

It hit him almost as hard as that damned notebook had first hit him; Kira had instructed Misa to watch the old investigation team. Now he would be alerted, and soon.

"Dammit!" L said in frustration, shutting his laptop loudly.

"_Eh?_" There was the crunching sound of an apple being bit into. "_What's up?_"

"Misa," he said, reaching under his bed to put his laptop and voice filtering microphone. He ran his hand through his hair in a frustrated manner. "She's following the investigation team."

"_Took you a while to figure that out. What d'ya think Kira's gonna do now?_"

"Hopefully not kill anyone…" he said. "That would be bad."

"_He's probably already out killing people in the most random ways he can think of_," Ryuk said. "_Son of a bitch left me here to keep an eye on you and alert him if you did anything interesting. Hey_," he added, extending his wings out and floating up from the floor. "_I should probably do that… but… eh._" He sat back down on the floor. "_He'll find out from Misa soon enough, eh?_"

"Right…" L decided it would be best to think of something – no, _anything_ else. "What 'random ways' is he using to killing people?"

"_The best one so far was the 'saguaro disaster' in Arizona in the United States a couple days ago. That's what the news was calling it._" Ryuk took another bite of apple. "_Or something like that._"

"What…?"

"_You wanna know, it should be all over the internet. I think there's even pictures of the cactus after it fell on top of the guy._"

"Uh… yeah. No thanks."

Ryuk shrugged. "_Your loss. It was awesome, though._"

* * *

"Hey, check this out," Matt said, looking at the computer screen in his and Mello's room.

Mello and Near walked over from their separate patches of floor where they had been looking through the printed papers. They had instructed Matt to do a little more research on the Kira case itself, but he was apparently already off task. A look at the Google toolbar on the internet page showed that he had decided to type in the word "apples."

"What _is_ that?" Mello asked, biting off a large hunk of the chocolate he was holding as he looked at a picture at the top of an article on the web page.

"That's just sickening…" Near said.

"What _is_ it??" Mello repeated.

"It says it happened in Arizona the other day," Matt said, reading an article next to the rather grotesque picture. "The biggest known Saguaro Cactus fell on some guy on a motorbike while he was riding through the desert."

"I thought you were looking up stuff about Kira," Mello said slowly.

"Check this out," Matt said, ignoring Mello. He read something from the top of a paragraph. "_'The strangest thing of all is that a number of apple cores were found around the area where this strange event took place, even though apples obviously do not grow in the desert._' I think that's too strange to be a coincidence."

"No freakin' way," Mello said, pulling the rolling chair away from the computer that Matt was sitting in and looking himself. "Whoa… that's insane, you think – ow! Don't kick me!"

"Don't pull the chair out like that when someone's sitting in it, blondie."

Matt pushed his way past Mello and scrolled the screen back up to the picture at the top of the article again. Near looked from Matt to Mello, who were both hypnotized by the picture of the large cactus in the middle of the road. He shook his head and went back over to the piles of research papers to look through them. Granted, it could have been a Shinigami, but there was nothing saying that it was either of the Shinigami that were there at the orphanage. It could have been, but they definitely knew enough about Shinigami already. It was obvious that Matt had simply gotten bored with researching a case that L had made sure to cover his tracks entirely on and decided to type in random words in the search bar. It was a pity that L wasn't going to let them anywhere near his Kira files anymore. It would have made the research process go along a lot more smoothly. If they had to in the end, Near was sure that Matt and Mello would be perfectly willing to go search L's room for them.

"That's sick…" Near heard Mello say from next to the computer. Mello was tilting his head sideways at another picture of the cactus with a motorcycle and a body pinned under it. "But it's just so awesome… if this was a Death God, then they've got fucking awesome jobs."

"Yeah," Matt agreed, sounding equally hypnotized. "Awesome…"

* * *

_Will Misa alert a certain clueless cop of her existence?_

_Will Matt, Mello, and Near be alright when Kira find out what L just did?_

_Will the whole world be doomed in Kira's random killing rampage?_

_-The random word of the day is "cactus," by the way.-_

_Will Misa ever remember that Light changed his name to Kira?_

_Yeh'll find oot soon, me friends._


	9. Chapter 8: Unimaginable Imaginings

_Disclaimeeerrrrrrr: I don't own Death Note's characters, places, or concepts._

_I do, however, own this story._

_If you steal it, then a number of the following things may or may not happen to you:_

_- Shinigami-Misa will haunt you._

_- You will be driven to your wit's end with her constant third-person freferences to herself._

_- Her wings will set your house on fire._

_- When you are a homeless bum living on the side of the road with Misa still pestering you, Ryuk will throw apples at you for his own amusement._

_- Kira will kill you in an insanely random way that you never could have even possibly imagined. Then blame it on Ryuk._

**_Don't say you haven't been warned._**

* * *

As he didn't live all that far from the station, Matsuda decided that walking home would be better than calling a cab. Didn't cost nearly as much money, and it would also give him time to examine how often the air decided to bump into him, which had happened at least five more times over the course of the day. He had finally decided it wasn't his imagination, but he also decided not to say anything about it. With the Kira case back in play, the first thing that crossed his mind was that it might be a Shinigami, be it a rather clumsy Shinigami. But it still seemed like a possible explanation. It did to _him_, at the least. Why there would be a Shinigami following him, he didn't know, but he didn't know what else could be walking into him on an hourly basis.

His suspicions were confirmed when he made it back to his apartment and something that felt like paper touched his hand. Matsuda looked behind him, and he regretted it the second he did. What he saw made even less sense than the fact that the main investigators of the Kira case were the English alphabet, less sense than the fact that L was still alive when he was supposed to be dead. What he saw was Amane Misa. On fire.

"What the h–??"

"_Shh!_" she instructed. "_No one else can see me!_"

He gaped for a moment. "What the h–?"

"_Quiet!!_" she said. "_Just go in, hurry up before people come out here to see why you're yelling._"

Still giving the person behind him who was _supposed_ to be dead a rather reproachful, confused look, Matsuda managed to unlock his door and go inside. Misa followed him inside.

_Nightmare?_ he thought to himself. _No, that wouldn't make sense… unless I just dreamed the whole day. Maybe __**that's**__ possible. This doesn't make any sense whatsoever, that's for sure. What the __**hell**__…_

Matsuda sat down on a chair in his apartment. Misa hovered, sitting in the air with her legs crisscrossed.

"_Okay,_" she said. "_Matsuda-san obviously knows that Kira's back and everything, right?_"

"Uh… _yeah_, but you're… kind of… dead."

"_Well, __**obviously**__, it was in the papers. Kira sent Misa here to keep an eye on the investigation team and see what they did when they saw that Misa had died._"

"If you're dead, then why aren't you… _dead??_"

"_**Because**__ when a person uses a Death Note, they become Shinigami when they die._"

"So… that would mean… that I _am_ just having a nightmare and I should probably go to sleep so I can wake up," Matsuda said conclusively.

"_No, Matsuda-san __**isn't**__ having a nightmare. Misa's a Shinigami!!_"

"No, see," he said, pointing at her, "you're – or, _Misa_ was obsessed with Kira, so _Misa_ wouldn't go against him, Shinigami or not, meaning that _you're_ not Misa _or_ I'm dreaming."

"_I am Misa and you're __**not**__ dreaming._"

"Then what the hell are you–?!"

"_Umm… Kira isn't like he used to be. He's meaner. He's a Shinigami, too, but he's making someone else do the work for him and he threatened to kill the friends of the person he's making work for him if he didn't do what he was told to do. Plus, Misa is a Shinigami now, so Kira can't kill Misa even if she doesn't do what Kira says!_"

"Does that mean that Kira is… still Light-kun?"

Misa nodded. "_Basically. Except he's a Shinigami now whose name is officially Kira._"

"Do you know if it was really L that called earlier today?"

"_Probably. He's not dead or anything, so he could have if he wanted to._"

"But he's supposed to be dead!"

"_I __**know**__! Misa doesn't know how __**he**__ got to escape death and __**Misa**__ didn't, it's not __**fair**__!"_

"Uh… yeah…" Matsuda said offhandedly, scratching the back of his head as he stared in confusion at the Shinigami. "I'm… uh… I think I'm going to go to bed…" He started to stand up, but was immediately met with protest.

"_No! Not until you believe me!_"

"Well," Matsuda said, "do you know who Kira's… umm… _representative_ is?"

"_No_," Misa lied, shaking her head. Even though she was a Shinigami now and not a human, she still knew how to act. "_Kira wouldn't tell Misa who his representative is._"

Matsuda blinked a few times. There was a dead person floating in his apartment. A _dead person_. And _he_ could see it. Naturally, that meant it had to be happening. He couldn't have been hallucinating. He almost wished that he was, despite the fact that it probably would have meant he had some pretty weird mental problems if he was. However, he would have preferred having weird mental problems to having a dead person floating in his apartment. At least mental problems were explainable. As far as Matsuda knew, dead people with wings and hair made of fire weren't explainable at all. Maybe if he went to sleep and woke up in the morning, it would be gone….

"Okay," he said, sighing resignedly. "I'll believe you. Can I just go to bed?"

"_Okay_," Misa said. "_But you better be telling the truth!_"

"I am."

This was a lie, of course. However, if she was a real Shinigami, he didn't really want to die.

"_Good._"

"Okay."

Matsuda stood up and walked towards his bedroom slowly, glancing back at the flaming, floating person hovering near his couch that should have been a corpse. Misa not being dead didn't make any sense. However, Misa being a Shinigami seemed to make even less sense than her not being dead. Why? He had no idea. He was tired and he didn't much feel like thinking about it, either.

* * *

After thirty minutes of being awake and a cup of coffee the next morning, Matsuda was one hundred percent sure that there had been absolutely no dead people in his apartment the previous night. There wasn't one there now, which meant that it had to have just been due to the fact that he was tired from a fairly long day at work explaining to Yagami and Kitamura how there were a bunch of English letters investigating Kira. L, of course, was one. Then there was N, M, and M. But M and M? What kind of sense did that make? M and M's were candy, not investigator. Also an American rapper, he was pretty sure, but it didn't make any sense for random music artists to be investigating Kira. And Yagami Light was a Shinigami? That made about as much sense as Misa being a Shinigami. Maybe the entire previous day had been one giant crazy dream… or nightmare. At least Misa wasn't in his apartment any–

"_Hi, Matsuda-san!!_"

The voice sent his eye into nervous twitch-mode. It had definite sounds of echo to it, sure, but it definitely belonged to none other than Amane Misa. Matsuda hadn't ever wished anyone would die before – aside from maybe Kira – but right now he was wishing that Misa would die _again_. Or at least, that she would go haunt someone else in the investigation team. He didn't mean to say what he said next out loud.

"Why me?"

"_Why is Misa following you?_" Misa said.

"Y… yeah… that."

"_Well, Misa knew that the rest of the investigation team wouldn't believe Matsuda-san as quickly as they would believe Yagami-san or Aizawa-san or Mogi-san. This way, if Matsuda-san tells anyone that Misa is following him, then they'll just think he's being weird._"

This was new. Matsuda was insulted on a daily basis by Aizawa, but he had never been insulted by the deceased before. Or a Shinigami, for that matter. Had Misa, of all people– or, rather, of all _Shinigami_, just inferred that _he_ was scatterbrained? Well, then. That was an interesting perception for her to have taken. _Let's let the idiot see that I'm actually a dead Shinigami now – no one'll believe **him**!_ Sad as it was, she was probably right.

"_Oh…_" Misa said. "_That must have sounded mean… Misa is sorry. Misa did not mean to say anything hurtful._"

"It's okay." He didn't really want to get on the bad side of a Shinigami.

"_Do you have to go to work today?_"

"Yes."

"_What time?_"

"I have to be there by six."

"_But it's only five in the morning. How come you're awake?_"

"I just felt like waking up."

"_Oh. Well, Misa's bored, so Misa will meet Matsuda-san at the police station. Bye-bye!_"

Misa waved, then flew up and out through the ceiling. That proved to Matsuda instantly that he hadn't been dreaming or hallucinating. That was a pity. He had really started hoping that he was just going insane, but it was doubtful that his own hallucinations would insult him by accident and then apologize for it. That would have been _really_ weird. Besides, he could have never even imagined that Misa would become a Shinigami. And as hallucinations would have come _from_ his imagination, he couldn't hallucinate something he couldn't imagine… or something along those lines. So, that could only mean Misa was there and she was one hundred percent real.

And it _sucked_.

* * *

"Would you please put my television remote down?"

"_Nope_."

"Why?"

"_Because I need to find the news._"

L looked suspiciously at Kira, who really hadn't showed signs of having a habit of flipping through television channels in the past. He had entered the room through the ceiling about ten seconds ago, picked up the remote to the television set in L's room at The Wammy's House, turned on the television, and started flipping through channels.

"Why?" L asked, his normally stoic voice clouded with suspicion.

"_You'll see in a minute_," he said. "_It's interesting._"

"Were you killing people in random ways again?"

Kira stopping flipping channels and looked back at L. How would he have known that? The only other person… er… not-quite-person that knew about that was Ryuk, and L couldn't see Ryuk… could he?

"_What are you talking about?_"

"I assumed the giant cactus falling on a man on a motorcycle in Arizona wasn't an accident," he said. "Were it not for the stray apples around the scene of the accident, then my suspicions of it being you or the other Shinigami that you leave here to keep an eye on me would have been low."

"_Was probably the other Shinigami,_" Kira said evasively. "_This isn't just interesting, anyway. It's important. I overheard Watari and the other man that runs this place talking about it a few minutes ago. News? Yeah, this is it._"

"… that Kira has returned," the news anchor was saying.

"They already know?" L said, moving to the foot of his bed. "Please don't stand in front of the television set, Light-kun, you're not invisible anymore," he added to Kira, who was indeed standing in front of the television.

"_Kira…_" the Shinigami grumbled in correction before hovering away from the television.

"Is it really necessary to fly everywhere, Light-kun?" L asked.

"_Would you stop calling me that?_"

"Shh, they're talking about you on the television."

L coughed to suppress a laugh at Kira's glare. The fact that Kira knew his real name and still wouldn't kill him despite how irritated he got was quite amusing, and L had every intention of taking advantage of this fact.

"Another man in Arizona in the States died a rather strange death, and there are some questioning whether it was also the work of Kira," the news anchor was saying. "Riding a motorcycle through the desert, the largest known Saguaro cactus there fell over on top of the man, killing him instantly. This man, however, was not a criminal of any kind. Had it not been for the many _apple cores_ at the scene of the crash, this may have been looked at simply as a tragic accident. As some of you may remember, many convenient stores in and around Tokyo, Japan, closed due to apple thievings by an invisible thief at around the same time Kira first appeared. It is hard to say if this is a coincidence or not, as apples obviously don't grow in the Arizona deserts."

"This sounds strangely like something Ryuk would do. Don't you agree, Light-kun? ... Light-kun?"

L looked back at the Shinigami to see a look of confusion on his face at the news report.

"_This is Britain, and that happened in Arizona_," he said. "_Why is it on the news here?_"

"Because it could be associated with Kira's return, as far as the police know, and Kira is a world-wide fear of many. Also, some people may find a story such as this mildly amusing. Take for instance Matt and Mello, who both told me about the accident for the sheer reason that they thought it was 'awesome,' and also because of the apples around the scene of the crime."

As L listened to the rest of the news cast on Kira and how he had returned and many other similar things, he couldn't help but wonder when Misa and Kira would be meeting again. It was obvious that Kira would take action of some sort when she informed Kira that L had contacted Matsuda.

"_L!!"_

L looked at his door, which was being pounded on with such force that it seemed it might just cave in if he didn't open it. L took the remote from Kira – who still hadn't put it down for some reason – and shut off the television. He set it on the table next to his bed where it had been and walked over to the door. He unlocked it and opened it. Mello and Matt were standing there. Matt was playing his PSP and didn't seem to be fully aware of his surroundings, which was usual for him; Mello had probably dragged him upstairs. Mello looked either outraged or avid about something, which also was quite usual for him, considering the amount of sugar he generally consumed every day via innumerable amounts of chocolate bars.

"_KirasbackIjustsawitonthenews!!_"

L blinked a few times at Mello's incoherent yelling and arm waving, as well as Matt's sniggering at said yelling, before completely understanding what Mello had said.

"Yes…" he said slowly.

Mello's arms fell back to his sides at disappointment from L's lack of surprise.

"And… and… and… the… what're you going to do??"

"As all of the killings that have occurred so far are in Japan–"

"Except motorcycle-cactus-dude," Matt reminded him.

"If that was Kira," L said, "it wasn't one of his regular killings and probably won't happen again. I believe it may have been a test… a very strange test, but a test nonetheless." He heard the familiar cackle of a certain apple eating Shinigami behind him at this, but continued as though he hadn't noticed. "I will have Watari contact the NPA soon."

"You're going back to Japan?"

"Yes."

"Can we come this time?? We know all sorts of things about the case now and everything so we'd probably be able to help and–"

"I will see if that is a possibility. However," he continued over Mello's loud _whoop_ of victory, "you both should start learning Japanese immediately."

"How're we going to do that?" Matt inquired. "Get _Near_ to teach us?"

"That would be the best option as of right now."

Mello's look of triumph changed drastically in a matter of seconds to absolute disgust. "Alright, I'll work with the kid on the Kira case, but he's not teaching _me_ anything."

"Then neither of you will be able to help with the Kira case firsthand."

L received looks of absolute outrage for this. He heard the echoic clearing of a throat behind him. L knew it was Kira, but he ignored it. He knew that Kira would want the three along to Japan so he could keep a closer eye on them, and that they would be killed instantly if L refused. L just knew it would be annoying if he had to drag two teenagers who didn't know Japanese to Japan to work on a case with Japanese police. They wouldn't be able to learn every single word, of course, but they could learn enough so that they would understand a bit of the spoken language, at least.

"You don't have to learn much," he said before he could get blasted out by either of them. "Just enough to understand–"

"But _why __**Near**_?? He's going to be all smug about it and that's just going to be annoying and I can't learn _anything_ when he's annoying me!" Mello protested.

"You can and you're going to have to. You can't just go to Japan without knowing a word of Japanese."

"Why not??"

"They'll think you're mentally challenged," Matt told Mello. "But why does Near have to teach us, really?"

"Because," L said, fishing around for a reason in his mind other than the fact that he couldn't exactly teach them another language when he was basically being held captive by a Shinigami, "if you two go to Japan, Near will as well. It would be best for you to learn to get along with him before you get there, as the three of you arguing constantly would be too much of a distraction for the investigation."

"B– but– I – he – son of a _bitch_, I need some chocolate now…"

And at this, Matt and Mello both left. L shut and locked his door quickly and turned to face Kira and Ryuk. Kira of course still didn't know that L could see Ryuk, and he wasn't going to any time soon, either. Kira looked a little incensed.

"_Those three are going to be __**required**__ to go to Japan if you plan to head in that direction._"

"I'm aware," L said. "I merely said what I said so they would at least make an attempt at learning Japanese. Death must have decomposed your brain cells slightly. I am sure you could have figured out something that simple while you were alive. Maybe I'm just mistaken."

L sat back down on his bed, smirking inwardly at the further infuriated look on the Shinigami's face. Because of the fact that he knew he'd be in huge trouble once Kira found out he had contacted the investigation team, he was planning on having as much fun as he could.

* * *

_OH noesss random questionsssssss_

_Will Matsuda come to terms with the fact that a flaming dead person is going to be following him around from now on?_

_Will any more random letters of the alphabet call him on the phone any time in the near future?_

_Could he __**possibly**__ get any more confused? -__**sighs**__- Poor Matsuda. I'm being so mean to him._

_Will Matt and Mello forfeit their pride to learn a new language?_

_Will Kira ever admit that he secretly enjoys killing people in random ways?_

_You'll fine out soon– er… eventually._

_Thankyous for the reviews and views – it's up over 2,000 views now!!_

_Thanks, everyone!_


	10. Chapter 9: Insufferable Eye Twitch

_OMG. Nephews are frustrating. And depressing when they start crying after you yell at them for attempting you use your guitar collection as an elevation to climb on top of the dining room table._

_BLARG. Thank jeebus for the amazing healing powers of chocolate, soda, and crazy fanfic writing._

_Disclaimer: Same as always. See previous chapter. Yeah. Ya know._

* * *

After a few long and annoying days, Mello and Matt finally stopped complaining and agreed to let the midget sheep give them lessons on the Japanese language. Well, they didn't really stop complaining, but they did finally agree to it. L had spoken with Watari about Kira's return, and it turned out Roger had suggested that L bring the three miniature geniuses along so they could understand what working on actual cases would be like, and because Roger seemed to believe it would better to have four brains on the case rather than just one this time. L didn't like Roger much himself, but he was thankful Roger had made the suggestion before L could. That way, L could just agree with it rather than bringing it up and not having any real reason for the suggestion besides "_The invisible dead guy that's following me told me they had to come to Japan with me_." That would have been a rather awkward explanation.

L had been left that night with a Death Note, a list of Japanese names that he didn't at all – he was required by Kira to use his laptop to find pictures of the criminals – and an apple-eating Shinigami to keep him company. Even after more than a week, maybe two by now, L couldn't help but to grumble random swears under his breath as he looked up pictures on his computer to write the names out in the Death Note given to him with specified times. He would have given anything to have been able to kill Kira again. He would have given the chocolate cake under his bed… that was probably going stale despite the fact that it was in a cooler… he would have to get to that soon…. His life? Sure. Especially considering how all it was being used for lately was to write names in a notebook that killed people. If he started back on the Kira investigation, he would definitely be in trouble if he searched honestly for Kira, because all of the clues would obviously lead back to him. That was an annoying thought.

"_It's been over a week_." Ryuk cackled. L shot a glare at him. "_Aren't you used to killing criminals yet?_"

"These _criminals_ that Kira picks out have just as much a chance of being innocent as they do guilty," L said in aggravation as he scribbled down the name "Akamori Mika" onto a page, glancing up at the picture on the screen in front of him as he did so. He nearly tore a hole in the page of the Death Note he was writing in with the force he was applying to it with his pen. "There are always those who were let go wrongly, but there are also those who are convicted wrongly as well. Kira doesn't seem to understand that."

"_You know what makes you boring?_"

"No," L said through gritted teeth, narrowing his eyes, then adding sarcastically, "enlighten me, why don't you?"

"_Huhmm… what is it you humans call it? Ah, yeah._" Ryuk took a bite of apple and chewed it noisily before swallowing. "_Your 'morality.' I think that's the word. Kira had different morals when he was alive._"

"Did he, now?" L was mostly ignoring the Shinigami, but decided to humor it and allow it to speak about whatever it had to say.

"_Yep. I heard him say that the 'world was full of rotten people' loads a times. I think he believed that for those he killed wrongly, he was just preventing a crime before it could happen, or that they had probably done something else to deserve what they got._"

"The only people allowed to serve out justice are those in the field of law enforcement," L said, "and even I am against the death penalty in many cases. In cases such as Yagami Light, however, I believe he deserved death, and he also deserves to die again."

"_Oh? That's interesting._"

"I'm unsure of how it will be done," L said, pausing his writing and tapping the end of his pen against his bottom lip as he thought, "but there will be a way. Shinigami can die, can they not?"

"_Yep, but they can only be killed by the Shinigami King, or by using their Death Note to lengthen the life of a human. I only found that out less than a year ago. Pretty cool, though._"

"To lengthen the life of a human?"

"_Yeah. See, Amane Misa got a Death Note because a Shinigami killed this stalker that was about to kill her. He died and wanted his notebook to go to her, so Rem took it to her._"

"Ah. So it wasn't Rem's fault, really."

"_Nope_."

"So not all Shinigami drop Death Notes on the ground when they get bored." L sighed and continued writing. "That's definitely relieving to know."

"_Then this oughta getcha pretty aggravated._" L looked over at Ryuk, who cackled. "_Since I brought back apples from the human world to my world, we can trade them with the King for extra Death Notes. That's where yours came from._"

"Then how did you get Yagami Light's notebook?"

"_Tricked the old fart. Another Shinigami had lost that one, and I told him it was mine. It was easier than I thought it would be, and it turned out pretty interesting. That Shinigami about died, but he got his notebook back, so he wasn't too pissed._"

L shook his head, deciding not to reply. Ryuk seemed to find humans exceedingly interesting, definitely much more than his own kind. The idea of Shinigami was more interesting to L than humans were, but he supposed that was probably because he himself was a human who hadn't even known Shinigami were real until less than a year ago. Shinigami – they were the beings who could kill without any regrets or problems. They were those who used the lives of humans to add to their own lives. They were those who found humor in tragedy and boredom in integrity. It was human nature to find things unfamiliar either scary or interesting, generally the first followed by the latter as a reaction. So what was in Shinigami nature? Furthermore, what was in the nature of Shinigami who had previously been human?

"Ryuk," L said, pausing his writing and turning.

"_Eh?_"

"When humans who have written in a Death Note die, they become Shinigami, is that not correct?"

"_Yep. It's right._"

"Do they hold on to the basic personality they had as a human?"

"_I dunno. Seems like it so far, except I think Kira might've lost it a little bit more. That's kinda my fault, seeing as I didn't warn him that he was going to land head-first in the Shinigami world when he died. That can pretty much drive a human nuts. The only major change is that some of 'em start liking apples a lot more. Why? Curious about what will happen when you die?_"

"No," L said. "Just curious about Shinigami in general. Did they all start as humans?"

"_Nope. I didn't. A lot of the Shinigami have been around since… uh… forever, basically._"

"Humans haven't been around for forever, so how did all of the Shinigami not die?"

"_Well, it's not just humans, really. Anything mortal and intelligent enough to have a language and names for us to be able to write in the Death Notes._"

"On… the Earth…"

"_Who said it had to be just on Earth?_"

"You did. I remember you mentioning that if all humans were to die, then the Shinigami also would."

"_Why'd ya think I was telling the truth? You're supposed to be one of the smartest people in the world._"

L's confusion and pondering over this was met with another of Ryuk's amused guffaws.

"Are you implying that there are… er… for lack of a less _formal_ way to say it… aliens?"

"_Kinda. Not in this solar system, obviously. The Shinigami realm is called a 'realm' for a reason. It's completely separate from this one. And through portals in our realm, we can go basically anywhere in this one. But mostly, since humans aren't as advanced as most other life forms, we stick to them, since that makes them pretty amusing. Plus their life spans are longer, which means we get more life off of 'em when we kill them. We can just move on to something else when the humans die._"

L continued to ponder as he wrote down the fourteenth name, rather than ask any more questions. Kira had left him with a job to do, and any more questions would have sidetracked him. Kira would obviously get angry if L wasn't finished writing down a few names by the time he got back, and L had a subconscious fear that Kira's short-tempered nature would cause him to take it out on a random kid at the orphanage just to spite L. He had heard enough from Ryuk, anyway. Pondering the mysteries of the universe would just end up leaving him awake all night again, and he _did_ require sleep occasionally.

He finished writing the last names and their times of death within the next couple of minutes. He hid the Death Note back in between his mattress and box spring, making a mental note to think of a better hiding place for it soon. After placing his pen and his closed laptop deleted of all internet history on his bedside table, he lay down on his back, crossing his arms as he stared at the ceiling above him.

"I take it Kira is off for his weekly checking in on his employee?"

"_Employee?_" A guffaw of laughter followed this. "_More like slave. I'm only doing this because it's better than sitting in the Shinigami realm watching a bunch of idiots gambling. Higuchi's one a' those guys now. Got over his authority complex pretty quick when he realized it wasn't going to get him anywhere as a Shinigami. Hey_," Ryuk said, "_what're you gonna do when you die?_"

"Hmm?" L looked over. "Turn into a Shinigami, obviously."

"_Shinigami that were human once hold onto their human nature. You're against killing innocent people, but you can't only kill criminals or you'll get into trouble. What're you gonna do?_"

"Act as a Shinigami is supposed to act," he said. "I just won't give any humans Death Notes, and I'll only write a name when my time is almost up."

"_Yeah, __**that**__ sounds __**really **__entertaining_…" Ryuk grumbled, biting the core of his apple in half.

"Did you figure I would let myself die again?"

"_Yeah. Considering your 'morality' or whatever you humans call it._"

"Yes, I may have morals, but it is in the nature of most humans to have a fear of dying. I know I do not face actual death when I die, and I do appreciate knowing that. However, when I become a Shinigami, I won't know what would come after, so I wouldn't want to die. All humans, whether they admit to it or not, possess a fear of the unknown."

"_Huh_," Ryuk said. He tossed the last half of the apple's core into his mouth and swallowed it whole, stem and all. L wasn't sure how he managed to do it. "_Humans are afraid of things they don't understand…. They really are interesting, ya know._"

"I suppose I would agree if I weren't one myself," L said, staring back up at his ceiling again.

* * *

Matsuda tapped his pencil boredly on the desk he was supposed to be doing paperwork at, oblivious to the annoyed glares he was getting from Kitamura, Aizawa, Mogi, Yagami, and Ide (who had decided to rejoin the Kira investigation after leaving it in the first place for his lack of trust in people who work like L). Today was the day that they were supposed to be getting a visit from Watari, as Watari had informed them and L had later confirmed. They still hadn't gotten a decent explanation of how L had managed to survive writing his own name in a Death Note, but they were planning on getting one from either Watari or L himself.

"_How much longer 'til the old guy gets here, Matsuda-san?_"

Matsuda's eye twitched at the sound of the voice, and he didn't answer. The team already thought he was an idiot. Having them think he was some nut job who talked to the dead would only make it harder for them to work together.

"_Oh. Matsuda-san can't answer Misa-Misa with the rest of the team here. Can Matsuda-san write down how much longer on the paper and then erase it?_"

That was a smart idea, especially to come from Misa, whose brain basically seemed immune to intelligent thoughts most of the time. Maybe dying had boosted her brain power. It had definitely boosted her insult power, though she never seemed to realize she was being insulting until after the words had slipped out of her mouth, and that was beginning to get annoying. Matsuda bent his pencil down to the paper and wrote "Supposed to be right now, so any minute," in light, easily erasable lettering. Misa bent her head down to the paper (Matsuda moved it over a little for fear of her catching it on fire and the team blaming him) and looked.

"_Good. I'm starting to get bored. And I've got this weird craving for apples…_"

_Oh, god…_ Matsuda thought, flinching. _Now I'm going to have to start buying those, too… after hearing about what happens to that other one that killed Light-kun when __**it**__ didn't get apples…_

He shuddered inwardly at the thought as he erased the writing on the side of his paperwork. He then recommenced tapping his pencil eraser repeatedly on the desk. After a few more minutes of eraser tapping that made everyone in the investigation room want to rip Matsuda's head off, the door of that room opened. Everyone looked over as a man in a large coat and a hat with a low brim walked into the room, carrying a laptop computer with him.

After quick greetings and the setting up of the laptop, it was onto the questions. Still afraid that Misa might try to kill him if he didn't listen to her, Matsuda was asking everything Misa asked him to ask Watari.

"_How did that butt survive in the first place??_" Misa said poking his back repeatedly."_Ask him that, ask him that!!_"

"Watari-san," Matsuda said, swatting behind his head reflexively as Misa poked him. The team shrugged off this eccentricity as him just swatting away a fly. "Do you know how Ryuzaki-san… uh… survived?"

While no one else had bothered to ask this directly, it was something that everyone in the room wanted to know, which was indicated by how quiet the room became. The silence was broken for Matsuda alone when he heard an excited "_Yay!_" from behind him and the clapping of hands. This caused a reflexive eye twitch.

"No, I do not," Watari said. "Before anything happened, Ryuzaki did tell me he had a plan that would surely solve the case, but also leave the investigation team believing he had died, but I was not given details of his 'plan.'"

"Kind of figured that," Aizawa said. "Ryuzaki-san never gave details of his 'plans' to anyone."

"_Ask about N._" Matsuda received another rather painful prod in the back of his head. "_No one asked over the phone. Ask._"

Before Matsuda could ask, Aizawa was continuing. "Matsuda-san got a call from someone claiming to be Ryuzaki-san's successor a while ago," he said. "Someone called N? He also mentioned two other successors, but not by name."

"Really?" Watari asked, sounding slightly intrigued. "I imagine N would be 'Near.' The others are known as 'Mello' and 'Matt.' They are the next in line to take over as Ryuzaki when he cannot work anymore or chooses to stop working."

"Were they instructed to call?" Matsuda asked.

"Definitely not. I will ask Ryuzaki later if he knows of this, as I did not know they did this. Do you have any idea as to how they found you, Matsuda-san?"

"No," he said, "but they called me on the phone that Ryuzaki-san gave me when I was working as Amane Misa's manager to keep an eye on her in case she was the second Kira."

"They probably managed to break into the files and discover the phone number. Nonetheless, it has been requested that the three accompany Ryuzaki to help solve the Kira case now. As Ryuzaki trusts the current investigation team, you will meet them as well. They will becoming to Japan with Ryuzaki within the next few days. Since they're due to take over for him in the future, they are… exceptionally younger than anyone else who worked on the case in the past. They are also exceptionally intelligent, and there is hope that having the three of them on the investigation as well may help them to solve it."

"_How much younger?_" Matsuda refrained from wincing as a finger poked him in the back. "_I already know, but you have to ask him so the rest of the team knows beforehand because L probably doesn't want anyone to know in advance._"

"How much younger?" he repeated.

Watari sighed. "Matt and Mello are the older of the three, both fourteen as of right now. Near is around two years younger."

"Ryuzaki has employed young _teenagers_ to work on the investigation team?" Kitamura inquired. "That's insane."

"Ryuzaki and a few others believe that as they are close to graduating in their training, it would be appropriate for them to work on at least one actual case so they no what to expect when one of them is forced to take over."

"A 'few' others? I thought Ryuzaki-san worked alone," Aizawa said suspiciously.

"You may ask Ryuzaki himself if you wish. He has been listening."

Watari opened the laptop on the table. A familiar L insignia embellished the screen. A shared thought crossed the minds of everyone in the room as they heard the words, "_This is L_," from the laptops speakers: L was just as deceiving as he ever had been before he supposedly "died." Granted, this was definitely a good thing for the Kira case, but it was the very reason that many of them distrusted L. The lack of trust would make it hard to work with him, as always, but they couldn't complain, because they also couldn't deny that his help would be required.

* * *

_Will Mello and Matt end up killing Near while he's teaching them Japanese?_

_Will the investigation team accept the fact that they are going to be forced to work with more letters of the alphabet on the Kira case? Actually two, since there are two M's and one N and everything, but anyway, will they?_

_Will Mello, Matt, and Near get in trouble for their call to Matsuda that they weren't supposed to make? _

_Will Misa poke and prod Matsuda into insanity?_

_Will he go bankrupt supplying Misa with apples?_

_Will the twitch in his eye derived from overexposure to a certain dead model/actress ever go away?_

_Could I possibly feel any worse for picking on one of my favorite characters so darn much?_

_But more importantly, will L ever check on that damn cake that's been hidden under his bed since he got back to The Wammy's House?_

_And even __**more**__ importantly, will Ryuk choose to follow the four geniuses to Japan, or will he be unable to tear himself away from the oh-so-many apple trees at The Wammy's House that he holds so dear? Decisions, decisions…._


End file.
